


Another Rainy Night

by seozkjin



Category: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi | Spirited Away, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Fantasy, Fluff, M/M, Minor Character Death, Mysterious Yoongi, Spin Off, Spirited Away - AU, Spirits, Violence, Witches, dragon!yoongi, its a spirited away spin off, just a little bit, same universe different story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-04-23 08:35:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14328657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seozkjin/pseuds/seozkjin
Summary: Taehyung doesnt know why sometimes it rains red. All he knows is that Yoongi choose him as his new apprentice, and he's not having it.(or the spirited away spin-off no one asked for)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! just a heads up again, this is a spin-off from Spirited Away. It doesn't have the same plot as the movie! Only some scenes are similar, but the plot is all new.
> 
> Flashbacks and dreams are in italic, separated with a *
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

_He feels cold. His body is shivering in cold sweat and he is crying. He can hear loud noises but they seem very far away. Taehyung covers his ears and closes his eyes._

_“..ey kid ”_

_Taehyung can barely hear the voice, but he slowly opens his eyes, searching for it. His vision is blurred and his eyes burn, but tries to take a look around and finally catches a glimpse of a figure._

_“Hey, can you hear me? I'm going to get you out of there don’t worry! Just wa-”_

_But Taehyung never hears the rest. Won by the exhaustion, he lets himself drift into the darkness._

 

Taehyung wakes up in cold sweat. He sits up and looks around, feeling relief as he realises that everything’s alright and that he is safe in his bedroom. 

He feels someone grabbing his hand.

“Hey, are you ok?” Jimin says with a low sleepy voice, rubbing his eyes.

Taehyung squeezes his hand back. “Yeah I’m ok, just that nightmare again.”

“I’m sorry, Tae, I know how much they scare you.” His friend rubs his eyes and lets out a yawn before continuing. “Are you going back to sleep? We have a few hours before sunset.”

He hears someone shushing them while shifting in their bed.

“I’m going out a bit to get some air, don’t worry about me,” Taehyung whispers, not wanting to wake up the other boys in the room.

“Ok but don’t stay out too long, we have to clean that huge bathtub tonight.”

Taehyung gives him a little smile and nods, getting up. He tiptoes between the beds, being careful to not bump into anyone. When Taehyung finally reaches the door, he quickly leaves, knowing that it must be around afternoon now and the sun might disturb his others roommate's sleep.

He lifts his arms up, stretching as he lets out a yawn. Leaning over the balcony, Taehyung takes a look at the ocean below him, feeling the wind blowing through his dark brown hair. 

After a few minutes, he decides to take a walk in the garden, and maybe pass by the pig stall to visit the pigs.

Taehyung knows he is not supposed to leave the bathhouse, but since it was daytime, he thought that maybe he could get out without anyone seeing.

He goes down endless stairs, passing through the boiler room, being careful to not wake Hoseok up. 

Taehyung opens the door and reaches outside. Sighing, he gets on fours and slowly starts to crawl those damn stairs he hated so much. They had no handrails and some steps where missing, leading into a deadly fall. 

“Don’t look down, just keep moving,” he mumbles to himself.

Taehyung remembers very well the first time he had to climb them down.

*

_It is his 16th birthday, but no one in the orphanage remembers. Not that he has many friends; almost all of them are already adopted and have left him a long time ago. He has no one._

_Taehyung can't handle the loneliness any longer. He wants to run away, find a place where he will belong and call it home. Find the part that was missing from him._

_Making up his mind, he doesn’t pack, wanting to leave everything behind for a fresh start. The only thing Taehyung has is a blue beaded bracelet, and he didn’t even know how and why he had it. People only told him he was already wearing it when they found him at the orphanage’s door when he was little._

_Taehyung snook out the window, jumping and falling softly on the grass._

_He walks and walks guideless for what seems like hours, until he finds a trail near some trees. Following it, he arrives at a red large clock tower built onto a plaster-made tunnel._

_Hesitantly, he takes a step further, feeling the wind coming from inside the building, almost like if it was calling for him._

_Inside, there are multiple dusty benches, chairs, decorative pillars and tree leaves on the floor as if it is an old train station. Checking around, Taehyung heads up to the direction of the door._

_He sees a vast grass field, the clear blue sky above him. No animals or people are around._

_Walking a bit more, he sees what seems to be what once was a river, now almost dry and full with large rocks. On the other side of it, he can see stairs. Taehyung playfully jumps on the rocks, crossing the river and climbing the stairs._

_Surprisingly, he didn't feel scared. The pulling feeling he had before entering only grew bigger in his heart. He passes through some old houses, and sees himself surrounded by various food stalls and colorful restaurants._

_Taking a turn in one of the corners, he sees it: a grandiose and opulent red structure with several windows, but what caught his attention the most is that it didn't look like an old construction like the others he saw so far. A bridge connected where he is to the entrance of the strange building._

_Walking further, he hears the train. He runs to climb and lean on the bridge’s handrail, looking down to see that underneath of it there are the train tracks._

_The sun is now almost setting, the sky is painted with a beautiful orange color._

_“Woah…”_

_He then notices movement on the corner of his eye on his right and quickly looks at it._

_Standing there, there is a man with black hair and cat-like eyes. He is wearing a red kimono with puffy black trousers and he looks very calm, with his hands behind his back._

_“W-who are you?” Taehyung says, while jumping off and cleaning his hands on his clothes._

_The mysterious man smirks. “Me? Shouldn’t I be the one asking that?” He says, taking a step closer to him. “What a human like you is doing walking around here, on the Spirit Realm?”_

_Taehyung blinks, in confusion. Spirit Realm? That’s what this weird place is?_

_“I don’t know. I- I just ended up here, somehow,” He touches his forehead, answering truthfully, since he just followed the pulling sensation he felt on his chest, now stronger than ever._

_Frowning his eyebrows, the man then says, “You should go. If you don’t return now, you won’t be able to go back home.”_

_Taehyung then looks down, playing with his bracelet. “I don’t have a home to return to.” He mumbles._

_When he didn’t get an answer, Taehyung looks up. The man is staring at his bracelet with a confused look that soon fades away, turning into a soft one. With a smile, the man asks._

_“What is your name, boy?”_

_“My name is Taehyung, Kim Taehyung. What’s yours?”_

_“Yoongi.” The man answers back. Or better, Yoongi did. “Well then, would you perhaps want to stay here? And work at the bathhouse?” He gestures, pointing at the building behind him._

_Taehyung then pauses for a moment to think. Even though he just had met Yoongi, he seemed to be a good man. Taehyung feels like he could trust him, it feels right. Plus, it’s not like he has somewhere to go anyways; he needs a fresh start and this was it._

_“Yes, please?” Taehyung looks at him, with big puppy eyes._

_Yoongi smiles, holding out his hand to him, which he happily accepts. He guides him through the bridge, but stops at the entrance._

_“This is the main entrance, where the spirits come in at night. But we are taking a short-cut.” He then proceeds to enter a small door on the left, leading to a backyard._

_Realising that he was still holding Yoongi’s hand, Taehyung lets go of it and lets out a chuckle. Yoongi walks towards a door in the back, and Taehyung follows him._

_Yoongi opens the door and holds it for him to pass. Taehyung is too flustered at first because he sees the way Yoongi is smiling at him, but as he takes a step further he sees where they are._

_They are up very high. Beside him there is also a set of old, unstable side stairs with no handrails whatsoever that leads somewhere downwards. Taehyung takes a quick glance down and gulped in fear. He takes a step back, feeling really dizzy._

_“Woah easy there, boy.” Yoongi says, gripping his shoulders so he wouldn't fall forwards. “Here, take my hand.”_

_And he gladly did, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to move from up there. Yoongi did not rush him, patiently waiting for Taehyung slowly climb down, step by step._

*

After going up the stairs, Taehyung passes through the small door in his left. He crosses the bridge and opens the gate for the garden. He slowly walks through the flower bushes, stopping at times to take look at them.

“So pretty…” He says, while carefully touching a pink flower.

“You do know you can’t actually come here whenever you want to, don't you?”

Taehyung jumps in surprise, turning around to see who is talking to him.

“You scared the shit out of me!” He says, resting a hand on his heart. 

But then, he realises what he had just said to not only the witch's apprentice, but also the second in command of the bathhouse, and arrogant Yoongi. 

Standing straight and then bowing apologetically, Taehyung mumbles, “I’m deeply sorry for my behavior sir, it won’t happen again.”

Yoongi lets out a muffled laugh. “I know you come here quite often. And it’s ok, just be more careful next time so you don’t get caught by someone else than me.”

Still bowing, Taehyung glances at him through his bangs, but doesn't reply.

“Anyways, I think you should hurry up back, the sun is almost setting.”

Taehyung nods and leaves. Before closing the gate, he looks back, only to find Yoongi staring at him with a sweet smile. He shakes his head and mumbles.

“Stupid smile and your stupid pretty face.”

 

Now nighttime, Taehyung is back at the bathhouse and cleaning the floor with his now awaken friends, Jimin and Jungkook. 

“Ugh I hate this,” Jungkook says, sitting down beside Jimin and Tae, dropping his wet cloth inside his wooden bucket.

“At least you won’t be the one to be cleaning that bathtub,” Jimin complains, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Yeah, you know how filthy they are,” Taehyung sighs, resting on his head on his hands.

“So, where did you went earlier today? I saw you sneaking around,” Jungkook whispers, knowing the trouble they could get him if anyone else knew Taehyung had been wandering around.

“To the garden, but I had to leave soon as i got there, Yoongi caught me looking at the flowers.” He rolls his eyes.

“It’s Master Yoongi, watch your manners,” Jimin says, giving him a little slap on the arm. “And please remind me again, why you hate him so much? He even let that slip.”

“It’s not like I hate him, I just don’t like him that much.” Taehyung then starts playing with his bracelet again, a nervous habit he had developed.

“Ok, so he was rude to you once! I’m sure he didn’t meant it, maybe he was in a bad mood,” Jungkook says, “And it’s not like you two know each other so I don’t see why you are like this whenever he's around. He is better than Yubaba.”

Taehyung just shrugs in answer. He knew it was stupid, but Yoongi never apologised or gave him an explanation about that day.

*

_“Ok, so here’s what you have to do now.” Yoongi says, when they finally reached the end of the stairs, letting their linked hands go._

_Taehyung feels a little sad that Yoongi let their hand go, but he isn’t going to say that to Yoongi._

_“Behind this door you will find the Boiler Room and the boiler, Hoseok,” Yoongi says as he points to the blue door in front of them. “Don’t worry, he is a nice man. Tell him that I got you a job here, and you were supposed to start today but got lost.”_

_Taehyung nods._

_“But Yoongi, can humans work here?”_

_Yoongi shakes his head. “No, and that’s why you have to keep that bracelet of yours with you, it masks your human scent. It is the reason why I’m telling you to talk to Hoseok instead of Yubaba, the owner of this bathhouse. She is a powerful witch and that bracelet can’t fool her.”_

_“Are you a witch too?”_

_“I’m her apprentice, but I’m not as powerful as her. I felt a weird energy coming from the gate, so I followed it and it lead to you.” Yoongi smiles._

_Taehyung feels warmness filling his body. This is the first act of kindness he has received in years._

_“Oh, one more thing. In order to work here, you will need a different name. The one you use now will disappear, that’s how Yubaba contracts people.”_

_Taehyung hums, thinking about it. “This might sound silly but is it okay if I can keep Taehyung? You can take the Kim out of it”_

_“Yeah, that works just fine.” Yoongi gives his hand a squeeze, assuring him._

*  
“All stand, Yubaba and her apprentice are coming down!” One of the bathhouse managers shouts.

Taehyung, Jimin and Jungkook stood up quickly, getting in line and straightening their backs.

Walking down the stairs, Taehyung can see Yubaba and Yoongi.

Yubaba is and old woman that has an inhumanly-large figure and a large mound of discoloured hair combed into a bun-like style. She has a crooked nose, that draws the attention of a bindi-like mole between her eyebrows.

Beside her, Yoongi is looking very serious, hands behind his back.

Taehyung wonders how this frightening and cold Yoongi and the kind and warm Yoongi he had just met on the garden are the same person, as if there was two of him. 

A flashback from when he started working there plays on his head. He had taken the elevator, going down to his bedroom when Yoongi entered. Happy to see him again, Taehyung tried to talk to him, only to get shutted down. 

“Don’t talk to me. And address me as Master Yoongi.” Yoongi answered, not even looking at him.

Taehyung isn’t sure exactly how much time passed since that happened, but he guesses that it was five or six years ago.

Yubaba wasn’t too happy when she found out there was a filthy human working at her bathhouse, but since he was still there and not turned into a pig, he guesses Yoongi must have convinced her to let him stay.

Snapping out of his daze, he sees Yubaba and Yoongi stopping midways to discuss something with the managers. 

Taehyung only looks down when he realises that Yoongi is staring back at him.

They finish talking and move closer to them, and Yoongi stands right in front of him. Taehyung can feel Yoongi’s eyes piercing on him, but he doesn’t dare to look up. Apparently, Yubaba was going to throw a huge banquet in a couple days to some very important spirits and she was making sure everything was set for it.

Finishing talking to them, the witch and her apprentice finally leave, and Taehyung lets out a breath he didn’t knew he was holding it.

This is going to be a very long week.


	2. Chapter 2

They have just woke up, and everyone is already folding their blankets and changing clothes. Today is the the day of the banquet, so all of the bathhouse is already up.

“Tae, stop spacing out and help me!” Jimin says.

Taehyung is in the middle of folding his pajamas when he looked outside. It’s raining, but this time the water is clear.

Jimin comes closer to him, to look at what Taehyung has been staring at.

“Oh, today’s rain is clear.” Taehyung nods.

Tilting his head to the right, Taehyung asks, “Do you know why it sometimes rains clear as water, but sometimes it rains red?”

“I don’t know, it’s just the way it is I guess.” Jimin shrugs, picking up his pillow from the floor. He gets up and starts walking towards the door, before stopping and looking back at Taehyung. “But now that I think about it, I don’t think it ever rained red before I started working here, weird.” 

Taehyung then returned to look at the window. 

Jungkook lightly taps his shoulders. “Tae, you should really start getting ready, I don’t want the manager to scold you.”

Sighing, Taehyung turns away and finishes folding his sheets.

 

This was truly a chaos.

Taehyung has been going up and down the stairs all night long, serving guests and cleaning tables. Everyone is running around and yelling.

All the floors of the bathhouse are filled with spirits of all kinds. Important ones, mostly. If this banquet had taken place where he first started working here, Taehyung would probably be too scared to even come out from their bedroom, but since he has been working there for a while now, he had got used to it. 

At first, it was really hard for Taehyung to adjust. He knew no one (except for Yoongi, but the man wouldn’t talk to him anymore) and he couldn’t sleep since they have to work at night and sleep by the day. And why was the rain tinted with red? 

After a month or two, Jimin had finally started talking to the boy, and Taehyung was glad he could find a new friend. Jungkook came along later, having started working there a year after Tae.

They were the two out of three people that know he is not from the Spirit Realm. Jimin had gotten a little scared when Taehyung told him, since he had never met a human before. But obviously Taehyung wasn't that different from Jimin himself, at least not physically. Jungkook just shrugged, saying that he always knew he was a bit different.

There would be times where Taehyung had horrible nightmares with an ugly duck-head spirit wanting to eat him alive. But even after all these years, he still has that same nightmare he always had. Taehyung, sitting in somewhere dark; shivering in cold, and distant voices.

“Order from the second floor!” A kitchen workers yells.

Taehyung picks up the order and heads to the table. Someone comes running in his direction and bumps on him, making Taehyung almost drops the food. He hisses, imagining the trouble he could get from the managers if he did really drop it all on the floor and caused a scene.

He starts serving the guests, taking the plates out of his tray and carefully putting them on the table. Finishing that, he turns to leave when his eyes catch a glimpse of Yoongi. He is now sitting some tables ahead, smiling and shaking hands. Beside him, Yubaba is talking to a group of spirits, seeming to be very concentrated on the conversation.

Taehyung sighs and leaves as he hears his name being called once again back in the kitchen.

 

It’s very late when Taehyung finally gets a break. He swears that if he sees food once again, he will throw up.

He steps out to the backyard and rests on the wall. Looking up, he sees hints of orange in the sky; it was almost sunrise. Taehyung closes his eyes, feeling the wind gently brushing his face.

“Are you running away aswell?”

“Yeah, all of those spirits talking at the same time kinda gave me a headache.” 

Taehyung still has his eyes closed, but he is fully aware of who is talking to him right now. He would recognize that raspy voice anywhere.

He feels Yoongi leaning on the wall beside him, their shoulders are barely touching.

Taehyung suddenly feels nervous. What is he supposed to say? Yoongi’s presence would normally leave him really annoyed, weirdly enough, he doesn’t feel that way this time. Taehyung blames the tiredness.

Taehyung starts fiddling with his bracelet again.

“How are things?” Yoongi asks.

“Well,” Taehyung laughs “besides having to clean up all the shit around here, dealing with rude spirits and having back pains, pretty normal.”

He feels Yoongi stiffen. “Was anyone being rude to you? Which one of them was it?”

Taehyung stops touching his bracelet and shifts to face the older. He rests his left hand on his hip. “Why? What would you do, Master Yoongi?” That last sentence comes out sounding a bit mockful. Calling Yoongi as Master was still weird to him.

Yoongi’s face remains calm, and Taehyung can not stop thinking about how the older man looked so pretty under the shimmery lights coming from the bathhouse. 

“Anything you want me to.”

Taehyung feels a shiver running down his spine. He knows Yoongi is a very important figure on the bathhouse, and he probably could do whatever he pleased. He decides on not asking why, and instead, he justs laughs it off.

They stay silent for a while before Taehyung breaks up. 

“Well, I should get going before someone catches me slacking off.” He says, cleaning his hands on his apron.

Yoongi rubs his neck. “Yeah, me too. I am really not supposed to be outside, Yubaba must be looking for me everywhere.”

As they part ways, Yoongi gives him a small wave and a smile. Taehyung can feels his cheeks getting red, as he returns the gesture before turning away and returning to the chaos.

Taehyung can only hope that this fuss would be all over the next night.

 

However, the next day was way worse. It’s in the middle of the afternoon when Jungkook wakes him up. With a grunt, Taehyung rubs his eyes.

“Taehyung, wake up. This is bad.”

“What’s wrong?,” Taehyung says, sitting up on his bed. No one is in the room besides them. “Where’s Jimin?”

“Yubaba died.”

He frowns. Did he heard that correct? Was he dreaming?

“What?”

“Yubaba died. Now get up, everyone is being called to the main hall.”

Still very dumbfounded, he changes into his uniform and walks out the dorm. He can feel a weird atmosphere hanging in the air.

They arrive at the main hall and line up next to Jimin. All of the bathhouse workers are gathered up.

“What took you so long? I was getting nervous,’ Jimin whispers.

“It’s not my fault! Tae wouldn’t wake up.” Jungkook whispers back.

Taehyung can hear whisperings coming from all the workers. He doesn’t need to hear them to know what everybody is thinking. Was she murdered on last night’s banquet? What happened?

Soon afterwards, Yoongi and the managers from the bathhouse come down the stairs. The people move for them to pass, stopping at the middle . They have their hands behind their backs. 

After a minute of pure silence, Yoongi speaks up.

“We came here to inform that the rumors are true, Yubaba died this morning.” The room fills with quiet gasps and whisperings again. 

One of the managers raises his hand for them to stop talking and speaks up. “Yubaba knew her death was near, seeing that she was already a very old witch. She had notified all of the managers weeks ago about it.”

“But who will run the bathhouse now?” A voice in the crowd asks.

“Well, as she knew she would be gone, Yubaba arranged the banquet in order for the spirits to meet the new head of the batthouse. Yoongi, would you please?” The manager gestures with his hands;

Yoongi nods and takes a step further. “Yubaba has chosen me as the one in charge of the bathhouse from now on. Please bear with me, and I hope I can fulfill all of your needs.”

Before he can continue, everyone starts talking again, and this time, louder. Taehyung can hear noises of approval and some complaints. But that doesn’t stop Yoongi.

“And as for my new apprentice.” He pauses.

All of the people in the room had his attention now. That position was very much wanted by everyone, seeing that the apprentice position would be much better than any of the ones the bathhouse had. All eyes were on Yoongi, including Taehyung’s own. But now, for the first time, he regrets that decision.

Yoongi points at him. “Taehyung, you will be my new apprentice, you start this afternoon. Please, pack your things from your room and head to my office.” Turning back to the people, Yoongi finishes his announcement. “Thank you all for your attention.”

As Taehyung sees all the people returning to their places, he starts feeling dizzy. He can barely feel Jimin and Jungkook’s hands on his shoulders, both of them jumping in happiness for him.

 

Fuck.


	3. Chapter 3

Taehyung is so, so pissed off. Slightly scared, too.

Literally the last thing he wants is having to work as that asshole’s apprentice. Just because they had a normal conversation last night doesn’t mean he wants to work for him.

He just doesn't understand.

Loudly sighing, he practically throws his clothes into the bag. He doesn't have that much to pack; only his pajamas and uniform. 

“Oh come on, Tae. Cheer up, this is great!” Jimin excitedly says, sitting on his bed and lifts a thumbs up to him.

“Yeah Tae! Think about it this way.” Jungkook takes a seat next to Jimin. “Now you don’t need to clean any bathtubs anymore!”

“But now I’m stuck with Yoongi. Why would he even choose me?” Taehyung looks to the sides, checking if anyone is near them, before whispering. “Apprentice of what? I’m human! I can’t learn any weird witch shit Yubaba was teaching him before.”

Jungkook hums.

“Well, maybe that’s exactly why,” Jimin says, resting his weight on his hands. “He might not have the patience to actually teach someone all of that stuff.”

“Whatever,” Taehyung says in an angry tone, finishing packing.

Jimin and Jungkook stand up to give him a hug. They all know that Taehyung will still be in the same building as them, but now they are not going to be around each other all day long.  
They let go and Taehyung looks at them with big eyes and pouts, holding back his tears.

“Don’t worry TaeTae, we will still see each other around, you know we won’t go anywhere without you.” Jimin smiles at him, patting him on the shoulder.

“Yeah, and we can still have dinner together!” Jungkook pinches his cheeks, before slowly letting them go and turning to look at Jimin.. “But now that I think about it, Jimin, do you think we might be able to sit on a better table now that Tae is one of the bosses?”

Jimin’s eyes light up and he lets out a little gasp. “We totally can! People will be a lot friendlier with us now, even the managers will be scared of us!”

“We can do whatever we want!” Jungkook says, interlacing their hands together as they jump out of happiness.

Taehyung rolls his eyes. “Way to ruin the mood, guys.” He looks around the room one more time before heading towards the door.

“Don’t forget about dinner!” he can hear Jimin saying.

“And be nice to Master Yoongi!” Jungkook waves goodbye.

They both look like an couple dropping their kids at school.

Taehyung gives them a last smile and waves back before getting in the elevator. He pulls the lever and waits for the doors to close. 

The elevator stops at the ground floor where the kitchens and customer-use baths are. When the doors open, Taehyung quickly bows to the Radish Spirit that is waiting outside before excusing himself to switch elevators. The one he was using is for guests and workers to use. The one Taehyung is going to take now is meant only for managers and VIP customers. 

He tugs on his bracelet again. Taehyung has never been to the top floor before, it is a restricted area. He doesn’t want to admit, but he is very nervous to meet with Yoongi. All the anger he was feeling before is now gone and replaced by his nervousness. Aside from the first time they met, they didn’t spend much time alone. And the times they did it was always awkward; only some quick glances and chats. Taehyung watches the second floor pass, which is dedicated to traditional Japanese tatami-matted dining rooms for customers. It has a long hallway with rooms separated by rice paper wooden doors line the second floor.   
Soon afterwards the elevator doors open, arriving at the top floor. Taehyung hesitantly takes a step forward.

He sees himself in a wide room, walls painted with huge purple flowers. On each side of the room are two tall, colorful, expensive looking vases. The floor tiles have a green plaid pattern. At the end of the room, he sees two big red doors.

It’s very quiet, and Taehyung looks around the room searching for anyone. Confused, he guesses Yoongi’s office must be behind one of those red doors. The elevator doors close and he can hear it going back down. Taehyung is left in the dim lights coming from the lamps attached to the wall.

Picking one of them, he approaches the door on the right and holds the golden handle, ready to open it. 

“Aren’t you going to knock?”

Taehyung jumps back in surprise, seeing that the gargoyle knocker on the door has just spoken.

“You are the most pathetic little boy I have ever seen!”

Before Taehyung has a chance to answer, it opens, revealing many other doors opening simultaneously one behind another, while all the lights come on.

“Come in,” he hears Yoongi calling from inside.

Taehyung walks in, passing through the doors. He finds himself wandering in a long hallway with several rooms, looking for Yoongi. By the time he's going to call Yoongi because he can not find him, he hears:

“Follow to your right and then turn left on the second door, I’m inside.”

Taehyung follows his instructions, arriving at an open door. This time, he knocks.

The room is large and dark, with a very long carpet on the floor. To his left there is a lit fireplace and a few chairs. To his right, there is a messy table with a pile papers, pens and books on top of it. Behind it Yoongi looks very focused on his thoughts while signing some of the papers.

“You can have a seat, I’m just finishing reading these and I will talk to you in a few moments.” Yoongi says, pointing to the chairs and not looking away from his paper. 

Taehyung bows before sitting down. The chair is very comfortable and he can feel himself relaxing a bit from the nervousness he is feeling. Things were different before; even if Yoongi was the second in command, Taehyung would still refer to him as only Yoongi, refusing to obey the older’s order to call him Master Yoongi on purpose. But right now, Yoongi is in charge. He has to be more careful and respectful around him, especially because Yoongi had chosen him as his new apprentice, maybe because of all those times in the past he was a brat towards him. If he is not careful, Yoongi might turn his human ass into a pig.

With a sigh, Yoongi moves the paper to the side and gets up from his chair, making a turn around his table, and leaning his back on it. Taehyung doesn't dare to look at him in the eye.

“Kind of dark in here, don’t you think?” Yoongi asks. “By the way, sorry about the knocker. He can be a little rude, sometimes.”

Taehyung only nods, not answering him.

Yoongi looks around the room before speaking up again. “I hate it. Yubaba had a unique taste for furniture, but now that she is gone, I’m planning on redecorating all of this. I’m thinking about more of a traditional style?”

Again, Taehyung only nods.

“Silent treatment huh? It’s okay, I imagine you must be a little bit nervous,” the older says, giving Taehyung a short nod. “Care to follow me so I can show you your room?” 

Taehyung quickly looks to Yoongi’s face, searching for any traces of annoyance. But what he finds is a soft, welcoming smile.

“Yes, Master Yoongi.” The name bitterly comes out of Taehyung’s mouth, not really used to call him that. Feels weird, he thinks, as the title somehow puts a distance in their relationship (if you even could call that) that they didn’t have before.

Yoongi heads towards a door at the end of the room and Taehyung quietly follows after.

 

After having a little tour around the top floor, Yoongi suggests for them to come down to personally introduce him to the other managers. They get in the elevator, and Taehyung moves to the back of it. Taehyung might be taller than him, but right now, he feels so, so small.

They walk around the entire bathhouse all night long. All Taehyung does is stand behind Yoongi, listen to small talk and shake hands. Some of the managers pay no attention to him at all, but some of them look slightly concerned about their superior’s choice. Taehyung doesn't blame them, seeing as he also questions Yoongi’s choice.

 

It's almost morning when they finally have a chance to get something to eat. But on the way to the dinner hall, Yoongi stops walking and says he has to leave. Urgent matters, he says, but Yoongi doesn't explains it further.

"Are you sure about not having dinner?" Taehyung asks, "You haven't eaten all night."

Yoongi smiles and shrugs it off. "It's ok, you can go ahead and eat with your friends.”

Taehyung nods and deeply bows, waiting for Yoongi to leave so he can go meet his friends. Giving his boss a last look, he quickly heads up to the dinner hall.

 

All of the three are sitting facing each other with their legs crossed. Workers don't usually have anything else to eat other than rice due to their status on the bathhouse, but Taehyung got used to not having any other side dishes it with time. The bright side is that Taehyung loves rice.

“Didn’t think you would last this night, Tae.” Jungkook says, his mouth full of rice.

“Yeah, me neither. I was waiting for the moment that I would fuck up and Master Yoongi would transform me into some animal.” Taehyung reaches out his thumb to wipe of rice off Jungkook’s cheek. 

“Oh, so now you are addressing him as Master?” Jimin looks at him, smirking a bit.

“He’s literally in charge of everything in this place, I still have some common sense left.” He answers, giving Jimin a pointed look.

After finishing eating, Taehyung hugs their friends goodbye, promising to eat with them again tomorrow. 

As he enters Yubaba’s office (scratch that, Yoongi’s office), he looks for Yoongi, but to no avail. It was almost 7 in the morning and he hasn’t come back yet. Just when Taehyung starts to wonder where Yoongi might be, he hears loud thunder outside. Seconds later, it begins to rain heavily. 

The rain is red.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! just an fwi: for those who don't know, workers of the bathhouse are all spirits. that includes jimin and jungkook too! 
> 
> however not all of them have a human form. some spirits look like frogs, ducks, even radish.
> 
> (not jimin and jungkook, they have human forms.)

“Oh, would you look at the time, it’s already late.” Yoongi says, looking out of the window.

Yesterday Yoongi had asked him to help clean up the office, since Yubaba left papers all over the place. They have been organizing contracts, books and fares from the moment Taehyung woke up, and now, hours later, they are finally done with it.

It was pretty tiring and Taehyung couldn't stop complaining about back pains and sneezing every five minutes because the papers are very old and dusty. But in the end it wasn’t that bad, since he is starting to enjoy Yoongi's company. 

It's been a while since Taehyung was chosen as the new witch's apprentice. Every night, they would go around the bathhouse to check on the managers, greet new customers and meet important spirits. At the end of the night, Taehyung would always join his friends to have their meal together; and then, after finishing eating, he would come back to Yoongi's office, sometimes empty when Yoongi had other things to do outside the bathhouse. Yoongi never tells him or anyone where he is off to, but in the next night he is always back.

Working with Yoongi isn't as bad as Taehyung thought it would be, and it didn't take much time for Taehyung to see that the "asshole" image he had from him is completely wrong from what Yoongi really is. Although in front of his employees he can be very strict, all he wants is their well-being. Yoongi does not humiliate them as Yubaba did, and he never gets mad at Taehyung when he does something wrong, or when he drops something and breaks it. All Taehyung gets in response is a kind smile that makes his heart flutter.

He is no longer angry with Yoongi. The anger was replaced by hurt; Taehyung still could not understand why the older reacted so weirdly that day.

"I'm sorry I held you back all night, you can go ahead and dine with your friends," Yoongi says, getting up from the floor and wiping off the dust from his puffy black trousers.

Taehyung nods and bows, before picking up one last paper from the floor and putting it on Yoongi's table. As he’s turning away to leave the room, Taehyung sees Yoongi getting one set of chopsticks and a bowl from the cabinet and placing it on a small table by the corner of the room.

He suddenly feels bad. Taehyung is always having dinner with his friends but he has never stopped think about if Yoongi was eating all by himself every night.

Taehyung looks down and fiddles with his bracelet, feeling a bit guilty for leaving him alone.

“M-Master Yoongi?”

Yoongi looks at him and hums.

Taehyung bits his lower lip before saying, “Can I eat with you today?”

Silence lingers around for some time, and Taehyung questions if he said something wrong.

“You want to eat with me?” Yoongi asks, pointing at himself and tilting his head to the side, his brows cinched in confusion. “Don’t you want to join your friends?”

Taehyung runs a hand on the back of his neck, looking down. "No, it's fine, I would like to eat with you this time. Can I?"

"Sure!" Yoongi happily nods as he stands up and turns to the cabinet to get another set of tableware for Taehyung.

Now Taehyung really feels bad. Thinking about it, Yoongi must have been eating by himself for a long time, since Yubaba wasn't the type to share meals with anyone, and Yoongi was her apprentice for many, many years.

Taehyung settles to eat with his boss at least twice a week.

 

They are in the middle of dinner when they hear a knock on the door.

Taehyung shoots him a worried look. No one comes to the top floor uninvited, only if it is an emergency. Yoongi narrows his eyes before telling them to come in.

A few seconds later, the door behind Taehyung opens and he shifts in his place to look at it, and finds one of the managers from the ground floor.

"Master Yoongi, I'm deeply sorry to interrupt your dinner, but one of the workers from the ground floor has stolen from a client," the manager says, with eyes cast downward, his head bowing in reverence.

Taehyung feels a shiver running down his spine. He knows how thieves are punished around here.

"Hm?" Yoongi lightly grunts, finishing chewing. "What did he steal?" he asks, before getting more rice from his bowl.

"Some golden coins, Master Yoongi."

Yoongi sighs, carefully setting his chopsticks back on the table. He gets up and looks at Taehyung, gesturing to follow him.

The three of them enter the elevator. Taehyung won't lie, he is feeling very scared right now. Scared of what Yoongi will do to the thief.

As soon as they arrive at the ground floor, Taehyung already can see workers gathering around at the end of the corridor. The manager clears his throat, announcing their arrival, and the path clears up. At the end of it, he can see one of the workers with his hands behind his back, looking down. Taehyung guesses that he must be the thief. Yoongi and the manager are walking in front of him, and as always Taehyung stays behind him.

He can hear the whisperings; the words "thief" and "pig" are the ones that Taehyung can make out. With his hands behind his back, he closes his fists, scared.

Yoongi stops in front of the worker. Taehyung can feel the tension in the air, and in advance, he takes a deep breath and firmly shuts his eyes, ready for Yoongi to start to yell.

Time seems to pass slower, but then Yoongi finally speaks up.

"Would you kindly accompany me to the top floor?" Yoongi calmly asks.

Taehyung slowly open his eyes, baffled at Yoongi's words. He looks around and sees that not only him, but every worker, manager and the thief itself share the same emotion. The worker shakily nods, and Yoongi spins on his heels, facing Taehyung. He stares at Yoongi, almost paralyzed in his place, before snapping out of his daze. Taehyung steps back, clearing his path for them to pass, and Yoongi signals to the manager for him to stay. 

When they finally arrive at the top floor, they head to the office. Yoongi takes a seat on his table and gestures to the thief to sit on chair in front of it. Taehyung chooses to stay in the corner of the room, next to the fireplace. He crosses his arms over his chest and quietly waits.

"Please, make yourself comfortable."

The poor worker seems terrified and looks at Taehyung before sitting.

Taehyung observes as Yoongi takes out some papers and a pen from the drawer, before pulling up his sleeves. He interlaces his hands in front of him and rests them on top of the paper.

"So, what's your name, frog?"

"M-My name is Gea Rugi, Master Yoongi," Rugi says, nervously rubbing his hands on his pants. Then, he suddenly drops his knees on the floor and brings his hands together in a prayer. With tears in his eyes, he pleads, "Master Yoongi please! Please don't turn me into a pig! Have some mercy, I have a family - I just wanted to take care of them! I swear I will return the coins but don-"

It makes Taehyung want to cry. He knows that every worker that steals has to receive punishment, but he feels bad about Rugi’s family. The payment is almost zero, that is when there is some kind of payment, since most workers were working there in exchange of shelter and food. But Taehyung doesn't dare to interrupt Yoongi.

Yoongi closes his eyes and lifts up his hand, telling him to stop talking. "I only have one question for you, Rugi." For the first time, the frog looks at him in the eyes, already hopeless and waiting for his death sentence.

"Do you wish to stay, or do you wish to be free?"

"Huh?"

Taehyung isn't sure who says it, him or Rugi.

"Don’t worry, I won't turn you or your family into pigs." Yoongi sits back on his chair. "I'm giving you a choice. You can choose to stay, and pay for your crime with extra work hours, and cleaning the biggest bathtubs as a punishment. Or, you can choose to be free. I will give back your and your family's names, so you can go and leave to live a better life."

Taehyung has never been so speechless in his whole life. Rugi doesn't look any different, glancing at Taehyung over his shoulder with huge wide eyes to confirm if he isn’t hallucinating. Yubaba has never, not once freed her employees. They were all her slaves, trapped under the name contract. He just simply can't believe Yoongi's immense kindness.

Rugi then turns to look back at Yoongi, and starts to cry out of relief. He chooses to go, and Yoongi only nods, searches for his contract and rips it up, setting him free.

The sun is already in the sky when Rugi finally leaves. It was a long night, and Taehyung is feeling very overwhelmed by everything that happened. Before going into his room, Yoongi says that tomorrow they will announce to all the workers about choosing to stay or to be free. Yoongi says he doesn't want to keep them here against their will, since he has felt it himself for so many years. Taehyung feels very glad that the new boss is such a kind and thoughtful person.

He lays on his bed and stares at the ceiling, trying to clear his head. Hopefully he can finally get some sleep.

 

*

 

_The floor is wet and red from the rain. The thunder is loud and rings in his ears. Taehyung is scared and lost, curled up on the grass. He hugs his legs and hides his face in his arms. He’s having that nightmare again, only this time it feels different from the others, though. Feels more real, and Taehyung can catch more details; there are a few houses around and he can see bright lights on a distance._

_He can't move, his legs are starting to disappear and he doesn't know why, doesn't even remember how and why he got there._

_"Hey kid!"_

_Taehyung perks up to the direction of the voice. He can't see who it is, but somehow the voice feels familiar._

 

*

 

Before the person could show up, Taehyung wakes up with someone gently jolting him.

"Are you ok?" Yoongi is sitting on his bed, with a concerned look on his face. He rests his hand on Taehyung's right shoulder. "You were screaming, so I woke you up."

Taehyung blushes, realising that they are very close. It's embarrassing that he woke Yoongi up by his screaming because of a stupid nightmare.

"I-I'm fine" Taehyung says, giving him a little smile. He is sweating a bit and his heart is beating a little fast than usual. "I didn't mean to wake you up, Master Yoongi. I'm very sorry," he continues, reaching out to his bracelet.

They stay quiet for a while, but Taehyung doesn't fully calm down. This nightmares can make him get very anxious, since he doesn't really know why he always has them.

"Would a visit to the garden make you feel better?" Yoongi suggests, still sitting on his bed.

Taehyung shyly nods, and Yoongi offers his hand for him to take it, with a smile that makes his heart flutter and cheeks burn.

 

The walk to the garden brings Taehyung old memories. Their hands stay linked all the way, especially gripping them tighter as they climb up the outside stairs. The two of them get to the garden and sit, crossing their legs on the ground near the pig stall. Yoongi takes out a little pack from his clothes, and hands it to Taehyung with a pleased look. He unlaces the knot on the fabric and opens the container. There are six rice balls inside, probably made by Yoongi with the rice they had the night before. Taehyung carefully takes it out so they don't crumble, and hands one to Yoongi.

They both eat in a comfortable silence, and although it’s day time and they should be sleeping, Taehyung doesn't feel tired. The wind gently blows and the sky is clear.

"Can I ask you something?" Yoongi questions, before stuffing a whole rice ball inside his mouth.

Taehyung shrugs. "Yeah sure, spit it out."

"What was your life like, before you got here?" Yoongi looks at him, genuinely curious. It's been a long time since Taehyung thought about his life before the bathhouse, almost as if it hadn't existed. It was a very uneventful life, filled with loneliness. He doesn't regret coming to the Spirit Realm; in fact, he thinks he only started to really live when he got here, even if he was working as a cleaner. 

Taehyung didn't miss his old life, not even by a bit.

"Simple. Boring, even." Taehyung munches up his last rice ball. "I drew a lot, though, but that was it. I didn't had many friends, because right when we were getting close, they would get adopted and leave, so I had no one."

Yoongi lets a soft whimper out, seeming very sad.

"Oh, please don't get upset! Everything's fine now, I have my true family here, Jimin and Jungkook are the best." He nods and excitedly raises a thumbs up, trying to reassure Yoongi.

Taehyung looks at Yoongi. The older has such a young face, and he thinks that Yoongi hasn't age one bit since Taehyung started working there, years ago.

"By the way, if you don't mind me asking," Taehyung shifts in his place to face Yoongi. "How old are you, Master Yoongi?"

"Well, that's kind of hard to say. Time has a different concept here, you know." Yoongi answers, as he rests his left hand on his chin.

"Yeah, but do you know how old you would be in the human world?"

"Hmm, let me see." Yoongi thinks for some seconds. "Maybe around two hundred and fifty years old?"

That information doesn't sink in immediately. Taehyung knows that Yoongi is a spirit just like everyone else there but most of them are only fifty years old, some are at most eighty.

He doesn't hide his shocked expression when he says it, "Wow, you are like a grandpa already!"

Yoongi laughs, and he doesn't think he has ever seen Yoongi laugh. Taehyung can't stop staring at him, he looks so pretty with his gums out and his eyes closed. Taehyung feels his face getting hot and looks away.

"What are you even saying? You are probably fifty years old in the human world already!" Yoongi playfully pushes his shoulder.

Taehyung chuckles, but then he once again realises he might have overstepped the line between them by calling his boss a grandpa. He closes his eyes and mentally scolds himself.

"I’m sorry for calling you a grandpa, Master Yoongi. I didn't mean to be rude." He plays with his bracelet again.

Noticing Taehyung’s tone, Yoongi puts his hand on his knee to get his attention. "It's fine, don’t worry. I called you old, too. And you don't have to call me Master Yoongi when we are alone."

At this, Taehyung pouts and crosses his arms, fixing his gaze on some flowers shrubs. He knows he's acting a bit childish, but Yoongi was the one started this whole 'Master Yoongi' thing.

"Oh, what's wrong?" Yoongi lowers his head to look at him. "Why are you pouting?"

"You were the one who told me to call you that," Taehyung mumbles. "Back then, when I had just gotten here and you shoved me off on the elevator."

Yoongi raises an eyebrow, retreats his hand from Taehyung's knee and folds it on his lap.  
"I'm sorry, Taehyung, I did not want to hurt your feelings. I needed you to call me that so the workers wouldn’t think you were getting special treatment and treat you badly."

But Taehyung continues pouting. After a long awkward silence of Taehyung refusing to answer Yoongi, the older says. "My full name is Min Yoongi."

Taehyung widens his eyes.

"You know your full name?"

Yoongi leans back on his arms. He tilts his head back and closes his eyes. "Yeah, Yubaba gave it back to me before she died."

"Then why did you stay? You could have left this place!" Taehyung asks.

Yoongi shrugs. "Well, I like the bathhouse," He opens his eyes and looks at Taehyung. "Besides, I've got one more reason to stay, anyways."

Taehyung opens his mouth in a "o" shape and nods. It makes sense, now that Yubaba isn't here anymore, Yoongi could run the bathhouse the way he thought it would be best. From Taehyung's perspective, until now Yoongi has been doing a great job as the owner, and the workers have shown improvement after seeing that Yoongi could be a more understanding and considerate person than their last boss.

Yoongi suddenly grabs his hands, raising them and looks right into his eyes before blurting out, "your full name is Kim Taehyung, don't forget it. I want you to have it back."

Taehyung feels weird, almost. He didn't even remember his full name isn't only Taehyung. The sound of his surname doesn't feel foreign to him, but something that he has always known, but couldn't remember. Like a buzzing sound buried in the back of his head.

Taehyung squeezes his hand and pulls Yoongi into a hug. He is very happy that Yoongi trusts him enough to give him his name back. "Thank you," he whispers.

Some minutes pass before they let go of each other, smiling.

"By the way, Yoongi," Taehyung says, while plucking some grass from the floor.

He gets a hum as answer.

"Do you have any magical powers?"

Yoongi wipes of the dust from his hands and gets up from the ground. "Yubaba has taught me some, yes."

"That's so cool! What can you do?" Taehyung follows him and also gets up, walking side by side as they head back to the gate of the garden. Yoongi has his hands behind his back, as usual.

"Let's see, I can implant memories, cloaking, fly and some other stuff."

Taehyung opens the gate and gestures to Yoongi to pass before him. "You can fly?! You have to teach me one day! Do you think I can learn them even though I'm human?"

"I don't know," Yoongi chuckles. "We will have to try it out someday."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im back with another chapter, yay! this one was a bit longer than the others.
> 
> im working really hard on each chapter and i hope you like it?   
> im paying more attention to details, trying to make it not look like a 6 year old wrote it askjskldf
> 
> let me know if i should continue this?


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> beta'ed!  
> thank you anna for helping me~~

"To sum it up," Yoongi announces to the people gathered on the ground floor, "if any of you want to be free, I will be glad to let you go. Come by my office this week so we can discuss it. Thank you for your attention, you may all return back to work." Yoongi gives a light nod with his head before turning on his heels, heading to meet with the managers. Yoongi will have dinner with them today, to explain his decision and clarify any remaining manager's doubts about his decision.

Taehyung has also talked about it with Yoongi, right after Rugi left. He thought that giving the workers the option to be set free there would be no one left in the end. But even so, Yoongi insisted to let the workers decide what is best for them.

Now, his worries disappear. Taehyung finds out that most of the spirits that work there, do it so because they have nowhere else to go. Working there helps provide food and a bed, something they couldn't get on their own at the moment.

Right off the bat, around ten people approach Yoongi when he finishes talking. Some of them are cleaners, workers responsible for receiving the guests and a couple of managers.

Taehyung asks Yoongi to be excused so he can go ahead and join his friends. As he climbs up the stairs, he starts to feel very apprehensive, as he realises that he doesn't know if Jimin or Jungkook will still want to stay in the bathhouse, now that they can be free.

He feels his heart fill with sadness. All his life he has been left alone; by his parents, his friends in the orphanage, and now his best friends. Taehyung wonders if it's all his fault that in the end, they always leave.

He shakes his head to get rid of the thought, and gets to the dining room. Taehyung can already see both of them sitting there, silent. Nervously chewing his bottom lip, he goes to sit with them.

"Hey, guys..." Taehyung sighs, sitting on the floor with his legs crossed underneath a small wooden table. He feels stressed, resting his hands on his thighs.

"Hi Tae." There was a pause, a moment where everything was quiet. Already taehyung knew where things were going. His eyes looked up, seeing Jungkook flashing him a small smile

Neither of the two said anything else. Leaving Taehyung too afraid to ask them if they are leaving. 

A waiter comes in moments later, serving them rice and some side dishes. The air feels awkward as the waiter puts the tableware in front of them.

Jungkook speaks up first between the three, “So…” Taehyung sees him glancing at Jimin with a worry look. The brunette sucks in a deep breath and holds it in, not wanting to hear them. There it is, he has finally lost the only friends he had again.

"Are you leaving us?" Jimin sobs out, putting both of his hands over the table to get closer.

Taehyung quickly raises his head, a tear runs down his face. His eyes are wide in disbelief. "W-what did you say?"

"Please, don't go back to the Human World!" Jungkook asks, with pleading eyes. "We know it's a bit selfish to ask you to stay with us, but please, don't go!" His voice cracks, and Taehyung can see he is fighting to hold back his tears.

Taehyung wipes his tears on the back of his hand. "I'm not going back to the Human World, guys. You know I hated it there." Both Jimin and Jungkook let out a breath, relieved. "What about you, are you guys leaving?"

Jimin shrugs and shakes his head. "I don't have anywhere else to go, Tae." Jungkook nods, agreeing with him.

"So are we staying together?" Taehyung's eyes lights up, and he waits for Jimin to happily nod before pulling both of them into a tight hug. 

"I'm so happy, I thought you guys would run away and live your lives together in a house by the swamp."

Jimin breaks the hug. "By the swamp? What kind of spirit do you take me as?" He looks offended, but Taehyung only laughs.

"Hey guys, I just had an awesome idea. Now that some managers will bail out, Tae could ask Master Yoongi to promote two poor workers that he loves so much." Jungkook points between him and Jimin, and wiggles his brows.

"You're a genius! Can you, Tae?” Jimin brings his hands together, putting on his best puppy eyed look for Taehyung. “Pretty please!"

Taehyung thinks about it for a moment before slowly nodding. "Yeah, I can ask him. I think Yoo-Master Yoongi would be fine with that."

Jimin and Jungkook high-five each other, letting out a whispered "Yes!"

He rests his cheek on his hand, fondly looking at his friends. Taehyung is so glad his friends are not going away, and that he can be with his true family, he could keep them.

They are almost finished eating and catching up, when Jungkook asks. "Hey Tae, do you happen to know why does sometimes, Master Yoongi shows up with bruises on his arms?"

Taehyung has noticed them too. Everytime he would ask Yoongi about it, the older would smile and shove it off, saying that he had tripped or bumped into something. Taehyung rests his chopsticks on top of the table and retreats his hands, resting them on his lap. He looks at the direction of the table Yoongi is sitting in; he's quiet, nodding to some manager's words. Taehyung watches as Yoongi slowly raises his head and their eyes lock. Yoongi seems surprised to be caught looking at him and blushes, but doesn't look away. 

Taehyung narrows his eyes, before answering. "Says it's nothing. He justs disappears sometimes."

“Rumor has it he runs around doing some dirty work.” Jimin says with his mouth full of rice, shrugging. Jungkook slaps Jimin on the arm, with a pointed look.

Taehyung presses his lips together, and doesn’t say anything else.

When he comes back to the top floor, Yoongi has already left to do his mysterious duties, and Taehyung only hopes that he doesn’t come back with more bruises. He decides to wait for him this time, sitting in the middle of the office, near the fireplace. 

But it is getting very late and still no sight of Yoongi yet. Taehyung pulls up his legs, his arms resting on his knees and forehead leaned against them. He lets himself close his eyes for just a moment and nap for a little while.

He wakes up feeling a hand running through his hair. Rubbing his eyes, he slowly opens them and its meeted by Yoongi, carefully petting his head.

"Are you back?" Taehyung says, and his voice is a bit rough from sleeping, even though he only wanted to have a little nap. The sun brightly shines outside.

"I'm here." Yoongi smiles, but doesn't stops petting him. It feels very nice and Taehyung finds himself leaning into his touch. "Why aren’t you in bed?"

"I was worried, so I came here to wait for you to be back." He lets out a yawn and stretches his arms.

The older raises his eyebrows, surprised. "Thank you for waiting for me, but you didn’t had to, Tae.” Yoongi sounds apologetic, and grabs his hands and gets up, waiting for Taehyung to follow him, but he doesn't move from his place. “Please, let's go to sleep now, yes?"

"It gets lonely in here, you know." Taehyung pouts, and Yoongi's expression softens even more.

Reaching out his hand, Yoongi gently grabs his head and gives him a kiss on the top of it, before whispering a "I'm sorry. I promise to go out only one time next week."

Taehyung nods and gives Yoongi a satisfied smile. He stands up, still holding his hand as they walk together until they reach Taehyung's room. He gives Yoongi's hand a last squeeze and smiles at him, before opening his door and closing it on the way out. He slumps on his bed, smiling from ear to ear. If he wasn't so tired, Taehyung would be freaking out right now, thinking about the kiss he just got. He didn't know what it means, but he really like it, and if he’s lucky enough, maybe he can get more, sometime.

 

As promised, Yoongi tries to teach Taehyung magic and spells. Yoongi says that he has a meeting later, so they will use all of their night to focus on the it.

"Do you really think I can manage to cast some spells? I'm human, after all." Taehyung tilts his head.

"Like I said, I don't know. We are going to have to test it out." Yoongi shrugs and makes twirling movements with his hand, making the furniture back out and clear up space in the middle of his office. "You have spent a long time in the Spirit Realm, maybe you developed some kind of magic?"

Taehyung raises a hand over his mouth, and stares with wide open eyes. Yoongi has never used his powers in front of Taehyung, and most certainly didn't told him all things he could do. "You know Telekinesis?!"

Yoongi wiggles his eyebrows and smiles. He lifts his finger and a chair rises up from the floor, showing off his power. Taehyung looks like a kid, amazed by his powers. 

Taehyung narrows his eyes and crosses his arms. "But wait a minute. If you had this power all along, why did you make us organize all those papers, when you could just have moved your hands around?" 

Yoongi's eyes wide, before his face blushes and he looks down, avoiding Taehyung's eyes. The chair falls back on the floor as he grips one of his arms, he mumbles. "I wanted to spend more time with you."

Taehyung drops his arms and scratches his head, embarrassed.

Not knowing what else to say, Taehyung awkwardly clears his throat and claps his hands, quickly changing the subject. "So, can we start?"

 

They decide to begin with flying, since that’s the one that caught Taehyung’s attention in their last conversation about magical powers. Yoongi warns him that it’s a very difficult one to perform, but Taehyung insists on it.

He opens his mouth in awe as he watches the older rising up in the air, effortlessly. Yoongi grins at his expression, sitting with crossed legs and resting his hand on his cheek, looking down at him. "Just close your eyes and try to focus on lightness."

Taehyung closes his eyes and his fists, as he follows Yoongi's instructions, trying his best to concentrate and channelizing magic from within himself. 

But no matter how hard Taehyung tries, or raises his feet a little bit from the ground, he doesn't move a bit. Letting out a deep breath, he shakes his head to Yoongi, pouting.

Yoongi then lowers himself in the same eye level as Taehyung, legs still crossed. He pats his head. "Told you it’s a hard one, so don't be sad. Let's try some others, okay?"

“Watch me.” 

Yoongi leans forward, resting his weight on his left leg, and raises his left hand to his lips. Bringing his thumb and forefinger together, he takes a deep breath and blows. Pink petals come out of his fingers, floating in the air. Taehyung frowns at this, carefully turning around and searches the room for anything out of the usual, but finds everything exactly on the same place as it was before. 

He looks at the window and tilts his head, approaching it. Leaning on the frame, Taehyung can feel a breeze blowing on his face, and as he looks down, he sees all the lights of the bathhouse on, and the way they beautifully reflect on the sea below him. Taehyung follows with his eyes the train running through the underwater tracks with his eyes until they meet the horizon, and the sky is full of stars with the moon shining brightly. Following the horizon on the right, Taehyung can see distant lights of a town, and he wonders if that’s the Human World, or just more of the Spirit Realm. 

He has never left the bathhouse all these years, and the only way to go somewhere would be that train, but Jimin says they stopped selling tickets there for more than a hundred years. The train used to run in both directions, but these days it’s a one way ride, he says.

Taehyung feels kind of foggy and slow. Like he was doing something just now, but can't quite remember what it is. He tries to remember, but can't. Yawning, he let's go of the window's frame and turns to go back to his room. As he does, he sees someone standing right behind him.

"Y-Yoongi!" Taehyung remembers then what was happening before and stops midway, avoiding to crash into Yoongi. A sharp pain hits his head, and he raises his hand to try soothing it out the sudden pain. "Oh wow, what was that? It felt super weird."

"Distraction." Yoongi smiles when Taehyung’s face fills with surprise. "I think you might be able to execute this one, even if it lasts less than mine." Yoongi nods with conviction. "Maybe it will be easier if you try it out on Jimin or Jungkook, since I'm already used to it."

"I promise to practice it." Taehyung says, giving Yoongi a thumbs up.

"Ok, last one." Yoongi claps his hands and leaves to the cabinet on the corner of the room. He opens one of the drawers and takes out some herbs. "Time to learn some Healing spells. Well, not really spells but basic herbal knowledge, before jumping into any real magic."

First, Yoongi grabs the herbs, water, a bowl and a plate, and sets them on top of the table. He gestures for Taehyung to sit down with him, and tells him to pay attention to the next steps. He gets to working setting some herb leafs on the bowl, crushing them into powder and adding drops of water, mixing them until they have a consistent texture and repeats the process. After it gets a nice texture, he grabs the herb dough and starts shaping it into a tiny ball, gently pressing it down so the water squeezes out. Finishing his dumpling, he shows it up to Taehyung, and places it on a plate. 

“Give it a go.” Yoongi leans back on his hands.

Taehyung mimics Yoongi's steps, only pausing to look at him, silent asking if what he is doing is right. The shape is kind of weird and Taehyung almosts crumbles it by pressing them down too hard, but when he finishes it he proudly shows it to Yoongi, who smiles at him.

"What are these for, Hyung?"

"They are Emetic Dumplings, an antidote for poisoning." Yoongi starts gathering the herbs from the table and stands up to put them back on the cabinet's drawer.

Taehyung didn't know what "emetic" means, but the dumpling is made only of herbs and they smell really good. Shrugging, he takes a small bite of it.

He regrets it immediately. His face wrinkles and the bitter taste that takes over his his mouth, and he salivates in the second. Taehyung quickly runs to the window and spits all out.

Soon, there is a hand running in little circles on his back. "Don't you know what 'emetic' is?" Yoongi giggles.

"I didn't." Taehyung pouts. "They smelled nice, I couldn't help it."

"That’s the reason why they are an antidote for poisoning, these herbs are pretty strong and makes you vomit anything that’s on your stomach. I'm glad you only took a small bite of it." Yoongi moves away to the cabinet and Taehyung instantly misses his comforting touch. "Here, have some bread. It will take the bad taste away from your mouth. You did great today, we can practice more tomorrow if you want to."

Taehyung blushes at the praise and gladly accepts it, chewing it slowly. When the bad taste is finally gone, he suddenly offers his hand to the older, inviting him into a spontaneous dance, but Yoongi doesn't take it. Taehyung pouts and makes grabby hands, insisting on it. Yoongi rolls his eyes but smiles anyways, and finally extends his hands to Taehyung.

As soon as he does, Taehyung pulls him up and starts to make silly moves and faces, laughing. Yoongi is laughing with him, covering his mouth with one hand, and the other holding his stomach. Taehyung pulls him in and and grabs one of his shoulders, and resting his left hand on Yoongi's waist, he starts to imitate a waltz, except they are not slow dancing or have any music on. Yoongi must not know what dance this is, seeing that he looks a bit lost and stumbles on Taehyung's feet a couple of times. It’s clumsy, but it’s fine, since Taehyung had never learned the right way to waltz on the Human world anyway, only saw it on TV. He doesn't know if one of them has to take the lead, but right now, Taehyung's pretty sure he's killing it. He spins Yoongi twice before pulling him back and returning his hand on Yoongi's waist. After dancing around the room, looks like Yoongi finally got the hang of it and they finish with a last spin, this time Yoongi doing it and Taehyung ducks his head so it's easier for Yoongi to pass his arm above it. 

Before Taehyung goes to his room, he looks at the other, "Thank you for being patient and teaching all those spells to me, Yoongi." He bites his lips, tugging on his shirt, and then quickly leans in and presses his lips on Yoongi's cheek. Without further interaction the brunette sprints to his bedroom, leaving a confused Yoongi standing in the middle of the office. Taehyung quickly closes the door behind him, before leaning himself against it. His heart is racing and beats loud on his ears, and he raises his hand to his mouth, covering his smile, not quite believing what he just did. It was an innocent kiss on the cheek, and maybe Taehyung had pressed his lips against his cheek a bit too hard, but he doesn't regret it.

He smiles before jumping on the bed, not even bothering to change into his pajamas. Hugging his pillow, he turns to face the window on his bedroom. It's almost morning, and he feels his eyes slowly closing. 

Taehyung catches a red dragon flying far into the sky, but he might be imagining it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi umu:(
> 
> i wrote this in ten days, almost a month ago, but my editor has been pretty busy so she couldnt take a look at this yet! im sorry for any mistakes, and im almost finished with the next chapter!!
> 
> btw!! please come and talk to me on twitter @seozkjin plsss i would love to be friends!


	6. Chapter 6

_He can't move, his legs are starting to disappear and he doesn't know why, doesn't even remember how and why he got there._

_"Hey kid!"_

_Taehyung perks up to the direction of the voice. He can not see who it is, but the voice sounds familiar. Quickly, the brunette finds the voice’s owner, a small figure just right on top of the hill on his right._

_The figure waves his hands in the air, trying to catch his attention. “Hey, can you hear me? I'm going to get you out of there, don’t worry! Just wait a bit!”_

_They disappear. Taehyung doesn't have to wait long for them since right after, from behind the wall of a house, a boy with dark locks and red clothes appears. He’s running towards him quickly. The unknown boy puts his hands over Taehyung's shoulder, and he immediately can feel the cold dissipating because of his warmness._

_"My name is Yoongi, I won’t hurt you.”_

_Taehyung wipes his tears and snot on his sleeve, looking into the boy’s eyes. The boy takes a deep breath, trying to soothe out his trembling. There’s a moment of silence before tries his new friend's name, slowly repeating the syllables to get familiar with._

_"Give me your wrist. Have this." Yoongi says, taking off his own bracelet and passing it through Taehyung's hand. It's slightly bigger on his slim wrist, and it dangles off, almost threatening to slip from his hand. "Unless you have something material from this world, you will disappear."_

_Taehyung slowly nods and looks at his wrist. The bracelet is made of several tiny light blue beads, and they shine against the light. It's pretty._

_"Do you feel better?" Yoongi looks into his eyes, and Taehyung hums in answer. "There's no time, let's run."_

_Somehow, Taehyung feels like he can trust him. He grabs his hand and tries to get up from the floor, but suddenly his legs feel like rock. "I- I can't move my legs! What should I do?"_

_Yoongi crouches down near him. "Relax and take a deep breath." Running a hand over his legs, Yoongi murmurs something Taehyung can't quite get through and immediately after he starts to feel his legs getting colder and they tingle all the way up to his thighs. "Try it now."_

_He quickly gets up, and he feels that the weight he had on his legs had magically turned into paper._

_"Now, let's go." ___

__*_ _

__Taehyung opens his eyes and sits up on his bed. Running a hand through his hair, stopping by his nape and resting it there. Why was he dreaming about Yoongi? The nightmares he has aren't new, but dreaming about his boss? That was a bit too much._ _

__Yawning, Taehyung looks out the window, his eyes still a bit blurry but he can see that's it’s almost night, the sky has a red tone to it, no clouds in sight. Hopefully, it won't rain this time._ _

__Thinking about his dream again, Taehyung thought it was weird, because it didn't really feel like a nightmare. They were never this detailed, but this time he could actually make out the blurry figure and the voice that was calling him, and he was more aware of his surroundings. Sure, in the beginning he was feeling really scared of being alone in a unknown place, but by the end he didn’t feel scared at all. It was just odd._ _

__Taehyung wonders if he's spending too much time with Yoongi, since he was the one that came to save him, mixing daily stuff with dreams._ _

__He gets out of the bed and carefully arranges his sheets and his pillow. He then opens his wardrobe and gets out of his pajamas, neatly folding them and putting them back in place. Taehyung still feels a little sleepy while changing to his normal green clothes. Yawning, he heads out to the office to search for Yoongi, since the older is usually up before him._ _

__Finding it empty, he takes a quick look inside the kitchen to no avail either. Is Yoongi still sleeping? Curious, he then decides to head to Yoongi's room to check up on him. He gently knocks on the door, waiting for an answer, but when gets none, he slowly turns the knob and peeks inside._ _

__"Yoongi?" Taehyung calls, looking around. His bed seems to be untouched, the curtains are open, but the windows are closed. Did Yoongi go out again last night? Taehyung is pretty sure he saw him going to his room last morning._ _

__Paying more attention, Taehyung notices that Yoongi's room is slightly bigger than his, which made sense since he took and remodeled Yubaba's room. His bed is placed right below the large window and his bed sheets are red and black, and Taehyung chuckles because he thinks that they really suit him. A big wardrobe stays in the opposite wall, a white dressing table on the other side which Taehyung goes to rest his back on. He knows he probably shouldn't enter Yoongi's room without permission, but he was left with this weird empty feeling from the earlier events, and being there helps calm him down._ _

__All he can think of is Yoongi. Yoongi and his mysterious meetings. Yoongi and his bruises and scratches. Yoongi and the way he pushes his hair back, looking so pretty. And his cute little button-nose that Taehyung wants to kiss everyday. Yoongi and his soft, kind heart._ _

__He sighs. No wonder he had a dream about him, since Yoongi is on his mind all the time. As Taehyung turns to leave the room, the hand he had rested on the dressing table knocks off a little jewelry box on the floor. Taehyung lets out a little scream and covers his mouth with his hand, gasping. He crouches down to pick it up, praying that he didn't break the exterior or anything in it. The jewelry box is turned upside down with its cover open. The box is light blue and has beautiful tiny golden details on it, and next to it, Taehyung sees an earring and as he lifts the blue box up, he finds its partner right below it. He picks them up together and sits on the floor, leaving the jewelry box aside. Holding them by the top, he analyzes them better. They are long, made with tiny blue beads that sparkle against the orange light from the sun that’s coming through the window._ _

__Tilting his head to the side and furrowing his brow, he thinks that they are really similar, if not the same, to his bracelet. Taehyung lifts his other hand and puts them beside each other._ _

__They have the same color and the same type of beads. Are these matching earrings to his bracelet? But how could it be? Taehyung has always had his bracelet with him, ever since he could remember, and the people at the orphanage even told him he was already wearing it when they found him. And if they really are matching to his bracelet, what are they doing in Yoongi’s room?_ _

__His thoughts are disrupted by voices coming from the office. Yoongi must be back. Taehyung quickly puts the earrings back on the box and closes the cover, placing it back on the dressing table. He quietly opens Yoongi’s door, not wanting the older to know he was sneaking into his room._ _

__As he walks further in the corridor, he can hear two different voices in the office. One of them is slightly raspy, and Taehyung immediately recognizes as Yoongi’s, but he has no idea to whom the second voice belongs to. He reaches the office and sees Yoongi talking to a man, but Taehyung can’t see him since he has his back turned to him. The man is taller than Yoongi; has blonde hair and broad shoulders, and is wearing a pastel orange yukata. Yoongi has his hands on his hips and has an excited face, nodding with a smile. Taehyung just stands there, awkwardly and not knowing what to do, until Yoongi notices him in the corner of the room. His expression shifts to a concerned one, and stops talking to the man._ _

__“Taehyung? What are you doing awake at this time? It’s a bit early,” Yoongi asks with a soft voice, and Taehyung walks closer to them. The man turns back to see who Yoongi is talking to, and now Taehyung can see his face, beautiful brown eyes thick lips. He looks down to prevent from blushing, overwhelmed by the man’s beauty. “This is my apprentice, Taehyung. Taehyung, this is Jin, an old friend of mine.”_ _

__Taehyung deeply bows to him, and Jin gives him a light nod with the head. He turns back to his boss. “I had a bad dream.”_ _

__Yoongi reaches out a hand and rests on Taehyung’s shoulder, slightly squeezing it. “Again?”_ _

__Taehyung nods and bites his lower lip. He wants to tell Yoongi about his dream, that this time it was different from the others, but he decides to tell him later since he has a guest right now. “Nothing to worry about, really,” he ends up saying._ _

__Pressing his lips together, Yoongi doesn't seem to be satisfied with his answer, but doesn’t say anything further. “Well then, let’s go walk around the bathhouse. Let’s stop by the boiler room and see if we can have a little chat with Hobi.”_ _

__Taehyung can see Jin’s face lighting up with a smile, and he nods enthusiastically. Taehyung follows him with his eyes as Jin turns to leave the room._ _

__He always talks about Jimin and Jungkook to Yoongi, once he even told him about his old friends in the orphanage, but now that he thinks about it, Taehyung doesn't like the fact that he barely knows any of Yoongi’s friends. Or anything about him really. The older doesn’t usually share much about him, always very mysterious and he wishes they could get closer._ _

__“You are dismissed for today.” Yoongi moves closer to the other male, trying to cover his mouth for Jin not to hear him when he says, “Tell me more about your dream later, ok? I want to know.”_ _

__Taehyung feels his face getting hot from their closeness, and it gets worse when Yoongi backs off giving him a wink, and leaves to accompany Jin. When they finally do, Taehyung raises his hand to his cheek, checking the temperature, only to find it already burning hot in embarrassment._ _

__He waits a few minutes before taking the elevator and coming down to meet his friends. It’s not dinner time, so Taehyung heads to the floor where he knows his friends are working on. Their uniforms have changed since Yoongi promoted them; they are longer and brighter, and have hats too. Taehyung thinks they are kind of ugly, but Jungkook says he likes it. They were given individual rooms on the second floor, but both Jimin and Jungkook didn't seem to quite like the idea, instead requesting for a single bedroom. Both of them work on the ground floor; Jimin is now a foreman in charge of distributing the bath tokens for the client's baths, and Jungkook is responsible for welcoming the clients at the main entrance. They both work well together, and the employees seem satisfied with the new managers. This fills Taehyung with a sense of happiness for his dear friends._ _

__Taehyung leans back on the booth Jimin works and crosses his arms. Jimin is busy handing a bath token to a worker, so Taehyung waits for him to finish it before starting the conversation._ _

__“Are you free today?” Taehyung nods. “Then why are you sulking?” Jimin asks, picking up three tokens and lining them up before organizing them into a drawer. “Oh, by the way, have you seen Master Yoongi’s new guest? Everyone’s talking about him, he’s gorgeous.”_ _

__“Master Yoongi dismissed me, and yeah I have seen him, in fact I just met him a while ago on the office. And I’m not sulking,” Taehyung huffs as he watches a cleaner running around with a bucket full of water to the other side of the room._ _

__“Hum yes, you are,” Jungkook says, quickly passing through them and entering in one of the bath stools._ _

__Taehyung sighs. “It’s just… The fact that Yoongi never tells me anything really bothers me.” He turns to Jimin, shrugging._ _

__“Well, maybe it’s not really your place to know that? I mean, Master Yoongi is the one in charge here, it’s only normal for him to not want to share details about his affairs, right?”_ _

__“I don’t think that’s why it bothers him, Jimin.” Jungkook returns and stops on the other side of his booth, humming. “Look at him, he’s even pouting, something else is up.”_ _

__Jimin and Jungkook turn and stare at Taehyung with narrowed eyes, until both slowly turn their heads to look at each other, their eyes widening, eyebrows raising and Jimin covers his mouth with his hands, surprised. He always thought that it is really impressive how much they are alike._ _

__At the same time, they point at him and say in unison. “You like Master Yoongi!”_ _

__Taehyung drops his arms as he blushes and looks around to see if anyone around have heard them. “Keep it down you guys! How did you guys even know?”_ _

__“Spill it out, Taetae.” Jungkook says, resting his hand on his hip. "Is that even allowed?"_ _

__“Shouldn’t you be back at work? I will tell Yoongi you are skipping work to gossip.”_ _

__Jungkook frowns and crosses his arms, leaning his shoulder on Jimin's booth. Jimin rolls his eyes at their bickering. “It's practically written on your face, Taetae." Jimin's voice is soft. "Now tell us Tae, what's going on between you two?”_ _

__Taehyung rests his hand on his chin, supporting his weight on his elbow. “I don't know for sure. Things aren’t clear yet but... stuff has been going on.”_ _

__“Uhh, what kind of stuff?” Jimin wiggles his brows, while handing a herbal token to a worker._ _

__“Like uhm, some hand holding? And forehead kisses.” Taehyung mumbles and looks away, too embarrassed to look at their friends in the eyes._ _

__Jungkook moves closer to him and pinches his cheeks, but he doesn't do it hard. “Aw look at him, all grown up already.” Jungkook gives him a pat on the shoulder. “Hey, I have to get going now, so let’s catch up later. Good luck with your new boyfriend!”_ _

__“Shut up!” Taehyung closes his fits and pouts, Jimin only laughs and waves a goodbye._ _

__“He’s just teasing you, Tae. But I think it’s cute too.” Jimin winks at him, but suddenly the line for bath tokens gets huge, and Taehyung gets the cue to leave Jimin to do his work. “But seriously, good luck Tae! I’m rooting for you!” Jimin raises both of his fists, giving him an encouraging smile._ _

__Taehyung holds his hands behind his back as he walks down the aisle, greeting everyone with a warm smile and a 'good night' that passes through him. He reaches the stairs for the second floor, but stops before climbing up and rests on the wall. Where should he go now? He doesn't want to go to the gardens right now, being too dark for him to look at the flowers. Maybe he should try and practice some spells? Jimin and Jungkook are busy now, and Hoseok must probably be with Jin and Yoongi. Taehyung decides to leave the bathhouse and practice outside for a change; a Distract spell shouldn't hurt anyone._ _

__And with that thought, the brunette turns on his heels and heads outside. Before passing through the doors, he sees Jungkook with his head tilted to the side, as if he is saying "where are you heading to?", and Taehyung just smiles and waves him off. Still with a smile on his face, he crosses the bridge and looks up to watch the stars in the dark blue sky. Taehyung haven't ever left the bathhouse, only to visit the garden which he didn't really count as leaving, since it was right beside it._ _

__Ever since when he had his first encountered the bathhouse, things had changed outside. The train tracks he saw under the bridge that time are now covered with water, since it had been raining so much it turned into sea._ _

__He retakes the path he took when he first encountered the bathhouse. Taehyung passes through the dirt path and by the several restaurants booths. There's smoke everywhere from the kitchens, and the smell of food hits him. He's not even hungry, but it smells so delicious he stops to have some. There are dark brown transparent spirits sitting on the stools, quietly enjoying their meal._ _

__He stops at a corner and starts to speak to one of them, just small talk to prepare them for his spell. When Taehyung thinks they are concentrating on him enough, he gets into position to cast it. Resting his weight on his left leg, he raises his right arm and brings his thumb and forefinger together, just like Yoongi taught him. He closes his eyes before blowing._ _

__Taehyung waits for a few seconds before peeking with one eye. The spirit is looking at him with a blank face, and he doesn't look distracted at all. Taehyung lightly blushes before quickly bowing in apologize and turning to run away. When he gets to a safe distance, he slaps his forehead in embarrassment. What did he do wrong? His position could have been wrong, or he wasn't that concentrated as he is supposed to be._ _

__Now that he has calmed down, he looks around. He's in a familiar place, on top of a hill. He can see the back of the houses, the sea and lights in the distance. To the left, he can see stairs that he recognizes as the one he jumped on top of the rocks to get to the other side of the almost dry stream, now completely covered in water._ _

__He scratches his head and sits down on the grass. Now that there's a sea, he won't ever be able to go back to the Human World._ _

__Taehyung brings his knees close to his chest and hugs them. Thinking about that gives him a weird feeling. It's not like he misses his old life, he much prefers to live in a place where he no longer feels alone. He couldn't even miss his parents, since he has no memories of them in his brain, so he would always feel empty. Taehyung didn't know love before coming here; and holds the ones who taught him what it was dearly in his heart._ _

__He stays there, even forgetting about having dinner with his friends in the bathhouse as he watches as the sky slowly starts to fade into a light blue color, and everything gets clearer._ _

__Taehyung almosts doesn't notice the figure standing beside him. Looking up to his side, he sees Yoongi, calmly admiring the view, as his hair is brushed back by the wind. He realises that he has been out for the entire night._ _

__“H-how did you know I was here?” Taehyung says, while he tries to stand up without stumbling._ _

__“You didn’t come back to the top floor, so I got worried and came down to ask if Jimin or Jungkook knew were you went to. Jungkook said you were out, and after that both gave me these weird winks?” Yoongi turns to look at him, smiling. “Anyways, I guess this how you must feel when I go out.” He sounds apologetic._ _

__Taehyung rubs his neck and looks at the horizon, the birds already starting to sing. “Yeah, kind of.”_ _

__They stay silent, appreciating the view for a while before Yoongi starts heading back, waiting for Taehyung to follow him._ _

__“Are you busy right now?”_ _

__Taehyung shakes his head, quickening his pace so he can walk side to side with Yoongi._ _

__“Well, if you don’t mind I would like to take you to see Zeniba. She’s Yubaba’s twin, hopefully she can guide you better with the spells.”_ _

__Taehyung excitedly nods. “That would be awesome! But how do we get there, though?”_ _

__“We will take the train,” Yoongi says, a soft smile forming upon his lips._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im sowwy im taking so long, things have been happening and its just a mess right now. im almost finished with chapter 7!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *whispers* dont mind my typos

"I thought they stopped selling train tickets for years now?" Taehyung says, following Yoongi through a path inside the bathhouse he has never seen before. It seems to be abandoned; there is no one around, empty rooms and kitchens fill with old, dusty pans. This part must be the old part of the bathhouse before Yubaba started to make good profit, he guesses. The dusty air makes his nose itchy, and Taehyung can't help but to sneeze a couple of times.

"They have indeed, yes. But I got these from Hobi, a long, long time ago."

Taehyung hums. "And where does Zeniba lives again?"

"In the swamp. I imagine you must’ve heard about it before, it’s the sixth stop." Yoongi says, turning the knob of the door at the end of the room. It opens to the outside, and he sees that they are way below from the bathhouse’s entrance, almost near the ocean. Under them, there are concrete steps that don’t really look that were made for people to use. The older jumps on top of one and offers his hand to Taehyung so he doesn't fall. Taehyung squeezes Yoongi's hand a bit harder, afraid of the height.

"Oh yeah, Jimin and Jungkook mentioned about it to me before. But I thought no one really lived there?"

"Only Zeniba does, if I'm not wrong. Maybe some of the older spirits, too."

They only let their hands go when they come down to all the steps and reach a little wooden boat. They hop on it and Yoongi takes the rudder and starts pushing and pulling it, while Taehyung sits down and seeing the boat starting to move along the train tracks. He rests his arms on the border as he watches a shoal quickly swimming to the under of the boat. He feels excited since this is his first time taking the train, even more because he’s doing it with Yoongi. Taehyung can’t help but to smile.

Not long passes until they reach a small train stop. Yoongi jumps out of the boat and so does Taehyung, and together they tie the boat to one of the station's pole. Taehyung shakes his feet to get rid of the water and Yoongi sits on the bench and taps on his side for he to sit beside. 

"Is Zeniba as scary as Yubaba?" Taehyung asks, dangling his legs off the bench. The morning sun is getting quite strong now, and he raises a hand up to his eyes to block the light, and squinting them so he can look at Yoongi.

"She's actually quite lovely, although she can get a bit difficult if you piss her off. But you should be fine." Yoongi reassures him.

The sun is starting to burn his legs, but Taehyung doesn’t even have the time to complain about it as he feels the floor starts to tremble, followed by a sharp whistle sound. He looks to his right and sees a red train approaching, splashing the water to it sides as he passes though the train tracks. They wait for it to fully stop, and he hears the engine cooling down. Yoongi gets up first and pats his hands on his trouser’s pockets, sliding his hand inside and taking it out a crumpled, golden paper of it. Both move forward to the first part of the cabin and Yoongi hands the golden ticket over to the train driver, a dark brown transparent spirit with a blue hat, who takes it and punches them.

Yoongi gives the train driver a light nod before getting on the train, looking behind his shoulder to check if Taehyung is still following him. Inside, Taehyung can see only two long benches, one each the side of the cabin. They move into a empty spot on the bench. More transparent spirits sit on the rest, and he can see lots of bags on the racks above their seats; some are on the ground as well. These transparent spirits resemble a lot like humans, Taehyung thinks; they wear suits and hats, but don’t have a face. They seem… quite peaceful. 

“Are you alright?” Yoongi is sitting right beside him, with his hands placed on his knees.

“I’m very excited. This is my first time taking the train!” 

“Oh, this is my first time, too.” Yoongi smiles.

He’s happy that he gets to share this moment with the older. The train starts moving, and Taehyung starts bouncing on his seat. It feels weird when the train starts to move, the floor trembles and feels the excitement on his stomach. He looks to the side to see that Yoongi seems to share the same feeling.

“So, how’s your spell practising going?” Yoongi asks, after some minutes passed.

“It’s…doing ok. I’ve managed to heal one of the scratches Jungkook had on his arm last week.” The older had teached him how to heal minor injuries on one of their spell classes.

Yoongi nods. “What about Distraction?”

Taehyung then looks away. Distraction is the hardest for him; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, like earlier that night. He remembers one time that he tried to cast it on Jimin and Jungkook. 

 

*

_“Are you sure you are not going to turn us into pigs?” Jimin whines._

_“Or like, switch our bodies or something?”_

_“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure. Now, get ready, I’m going to start it.” Taehyung warns, as he takes some steps back and rubs his hands together, getting in position to cast it. He’s not sure himself if the spell will work, but if anything goes wrong he can always bring them for Yoongi to fix._

_Right?_

_The eyes of his friends have fear, expectation and a hint enthusiasm in them. As both hold hands and close their eyes together, Taehyung closes his eyes and blows his fingers. He opens to see that light-blue petals have come out of it. He watches both of them closely, waiting for something to happen._

_Jimin’s face is the first one to change. His eyes are a bit hazy, like had just woken up. He furrows his brows and looks down to his own body, and then to Jungkook, who seems to be still paralyzed. His eyes soften and he fondly smiles._

_“What are you doing standing in the middle of the corridor, Kookie?” Jimin pokes him in the shoulder and Jungkook shakes his head, snapping out of the trance, but still confused. Neither of them seem to notice Taehyung standing a few steps in front of them. Jungkook scratches his head, but his expression shifts into a smile when he sees Jimin. “What about you, Minnie? Aren’t you supposed to be working?” Jungkook throws his arm over Jimin’s waist and they start walking on the corridor back to their places._

_Taehyung jumps and claps his hands, he finally managed to cast the spell! He giggles and runs towards his friends, throwing both of his arms over their shoulders._

_“See? I told you the spell would work!” Taehyung says, face with a boxy grin, but they don’t answer him, so he steps back to look at them._

_“What are you talking about, Tae?” Jungkook tilts his head to the side, and Jimin nods, agreeing._

_Are they playing tricks on him? Taehyung is sure he did everything right._

_Jungkook looks at Jimin, raising his finger and pointing to his head, and spins it. Taehyung thinks he hears him whispering “He’s crazy.” before Jimin says._

_“Talking about spells, when are you showing us some? I’m starting to think you can’t cast any.” Jimin smugs at him, and puts his hands behind his back, continuing his walk back to his booth._

 

*

 

"I tried with Jimin and Jungkook, and it worked, kind of. They couldn't remember anything at all." He sees Yoongi nodding, so he continues. "I tried earlier today too, but I think my I messed up my posture because it went wrong.”

"Maybe you are more powerful than you think?" Yoongi playfully hits him with his elbow, winking. He then stretches and lets out a yawn, before casually resting his head on Taehyung's shoulder.

Taehyung looks at him and is met with Yoongi staring at him back. There’s a little smile hidden on his lips and light pink cheeks, as if asking for permission to lay there. And of course, Taehyung has no problem with it at all. He even thinks about throwing his arm over his shoulder, but thinks that might be too much for them yet. He is brave enough, though, to take his hand and interlace their fingers.

They fit together nicely, he thinks.

"How was with...Jin? How did you know him?" Taehyung is not sure if he should be asking this, but his wish to know more about Yoongi speaks louder.

Yoongi hums. "It was nice seeing him again. You know, Jin, Hobi and I have been friends for the longest time. Even before I started working for Yubaba. We worked together as cleaners in a filthy restaurant, but after Yubaba contacted me to work for her, we went on separate ways. Hobi came too, not long after. But Jin had bigger plans for himself and now, well, he owns several entertainment buildings here and there." 

As the train continues to move, Taehyung watches from the window the different landscapes passing through. He sees islands with houses and train stops in the middle of nowhere, all surrounded by water, the sun still brightly shines in the sky, and Taehyung lets the back of his head touch the window behind him. He looks to the side, and finds Yoongi steadily breathing and his eyes closed. The older must be really tired, since he was out yesterday too. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he lets himself drift off a little, too.

 

When the train stops, it's already dusk and he feels Yoongi squirming on his side, rubbing his eyes and looking to the sides. There is almost no one left in the train; only a lonely shadow in the back.

"We are two stops away, I think." Yoongi’s voice comes out a bit rough from the nap. He gets of Taehyung's shoulder and cracks his neck and turns on his seat, bringing his leg above the cushion to face him. 

"So, can you tell more about your nightmare, now?"

Taehyung takes a deep breath. How should he start? The nightmares were always there, every since he could remember. But now, they were getting more and more frequent, vivid and detailed.

"They are always almost the same. It starts with me, little, sitting alone in the dark by a house on the floor. I’m crying and trembling in fear, too scared to move. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't. Usually, it would end there, but..." Taehyung stops and bites his lower lip, wondering if he should include the other part or not.

"But?"

Taehyung breaks the eye contact and looks out the window. The sky is getting darker and the bright neon light that shine outside hurt his eyes. They must be near a big city by now.

"Yesterday was...different. There was someone else with me, and they helped me get out of there." Taehyung quickly finishes it because he's embarrassed of his own dream, and unconsciously tugs on his bracelet. 

He receives no answer and the train comes to a stop.

As they both get out of the train, Taehyung takes a look around. The train station is just a dirt path with no benches and a weak light shines from the single lamp on the side. The clock marks 7PM, but it's already really dark, and Taehyung's eyes take some seconds to adjust to it. The train departures and they are left only with each other. There are many trees, no constructions to be seen and the only sounds he can hear are croaking toads, and the ticking of the clock.

Yoongi turns to him, offering a smile. "Follow me." Taehyung doesn't ask how Yoongi knows the way, but guesses Yubaba must have brought him here at least once, although he doubts it was by train. 

They walk in a path for some minutes in silence. At one point, he sees a little pond on his left, surrounded by fences and further ahead a large white cottage with a wooden gate around it, smoke coming out of the chamine.

Stopping by the entrance, before Yoongi could raise his hand to knock on the door it magically opens itself, making Taehyung holds his breath out of surprise.

From behind it, Taehyung sees a ghost. At least, is what he feels like he sees, even though he knew Zeniba was Yubaba’s identical twin, it is weird seeing her. But when Zeniba smiles and opens the door more for them to pass with a smile, Taehyung can already tell she isn’t like her sister was at all.

“Oh hello there! You arrived earlier than I expected. Come in, come in.” Zeniba steps aside and invites them in.

Taehyung waits for Yoongi to get in before bowing to the witch and following him inside. The place is quite simple, there’s a large wooden table in the center, filled with food; at the end of the room, there’s a lit fireplace with several baskets placed near it, filled with flowers and vegetables.

He hears the door closing behind him and Zeniba comes in his view.

“Please, have a seat.” She walks around the table and takes the seat at the end of the table, turned back on the fireplace.

He sees Yoongi giving her a light nod and joining her on the table, and before seating Taehyung says.

“I’m sorry for your loss, Ma’am.” He deeply bows, and Zeniba smiles.

“Thank you, darling. Now come and eat with us.”

His mouth waters when he sees that in the table there is tea, biscuits, different types of cake and cheese. There are also some flowers vases. Taehyung eats in silence, not paying attention to what Yoongi and Zeniba are talking about, since he’s much more interested on trying all the flavors he can. He only stops when Yoongi shakes his shoulder, trying to get his attention.

“So, Yoongi tells me he brought you here to work on your magic, yes?” Taehyung wipes the corners of his mouth and nods. “Forgive me darling for asking this but, aren’t you human?”

Taehyung exchanges a quick look with Yoongi before biting his lip and tugging on his bracelet. “That’s right, Ma’am.”

Zeniba narrows his eyes and carefully watches him, and Taehyung sees her eyes resting at his wrist, noticing his bracelet, and then slowly turning her head to look at Yoongi with a frown. There seems to be a silent conversation between them that lasts for a few seconds, before her expression changes to a bright one, and she nods at him.

“You can just call me granny, darling.” She twists her hand and the food floats to the opposite side of the room and clears the space from the table. “Now, let’s see what you’ve learned so far.”

They talk for awhile about spells and channelizing magic from within your body. “It must come from a warm place inside you, remember that,” she teaches him. Zeniba gives him tips on how to focus better, and feel the magic shifting inside him. Taehyung barely registers when Yoongi, that was sitting beside him, lies down and rests his head on his lap.

After they are done talking, Zeniba gets up and starts working on her spinning wheel. With Yoongi still fast asleep on his lap, Taehyung rests his weight on his hands behind him on the bench and throws his head back, deciding to take a nap too. 

He wakes up short after, and sees that Yoongi hasn’t move a bit. The older must be really tired since last night he was out and then spent the whole day on the train, only taking a few naps here and there. Taehyung fondly smiles and plays his hair, twirling it but being careful to not wake him up. 

“You know why you can cast spells, darling?” Zeniba asks, and Taehyung turns to look at her. He really didn’t payed much thought to why, after all, could have magic in him, he just guessed that it maybe it was because of the extended time of period he spent on the Spirit Realm.

“Is because of what you’ve got there, in your wrist.”

And then, he remembers the incident last night with Yoongi earrings. He had almost forgotten, since Jin came and then they were taking the train and the thought slipped out of his mind.

“You know, everything that happens stays inside of you, even if you don't remember it.” She gives him a wink.

Yoongi stirs in his lap and rubs his eyes, slowly waking up. He gets up and sits facing him, eyes still closed and his mouth has a little pout. Taehyung could almost pinches his cheeks.

“I think it’s time to go, now.” Taehyung says, and Yoongi finally opens his eyes to look outside. It’s still dark, and he guesses that if they leave now, they will arrive in around morning.

“Have you already finished talking with Zeniba?” 

The younger smiles and nods, getting up from the wooden bench, and Yoongi does the same. Zeniba stops what she’s doing and heads to the door. They stop by it and give her a hug before leaving.

“Thank you for everything, Granny.”

“Thank you for visiting me, darling.” She pats him on the shoulder. “Be careful to not catch a cold on your way back!”

Approaching the gate, Taehyung midway to ask. “Uh, Yoongi? How are we going back to the bathhouse? Jimin once told me it is a one-way ride. Are we walking back on the tracks?”

“Oh, spirits no. I don’t think we would survive the walk.” He softly laughs, before floating in the air. “We are flying back!” 

Taehyung stares at the hand Yoongi offers him. He’s a bit scared that the older won’t be able to carry them both back, but he takes his hand anyway. 

As soon as his feet aren’t touching the ground anymore, he squeezes Yoongi’s hand harder, afraid he will lose his balance, and he instinctively holds the older’s other hand. Surprisingly though, Taehyung easily finds his balance back.

Yoongi smiles, reassuring him. “Are you good to go?” He nods and they are up in the air, just like they weight nothing. Taehyung can see the fluffy clouds getting bigger and the wind stronger. He kind of feels like he’s Wendy, and Yoongi Peter Pan, flying through the sky. 

“I hope Zeniba’s guidance was useful for you.” Yoongi says, after a while of flying.

“It really was. Thank you for bringing me here to talk to her.” 

Which reminds him what she said about his bracelet. “By the way, Yoongi…”

The older hums.

“Earlier yesterday, I was.. Hm, I was kind of looking for you in the bathhouse before you came in with Jin and I…entered your room to see if you were there and I kind of stumbled on your dressing table and dropped a little light blue box on the floor.” Taehyung rambles, scared the older might get angry at him for entering his room without permission. “W-what I’m trying to say is, why do you have matching earrings to my bracelet?”

Taehyung feels them faltering a little on the air and his hand being squeezed a bit harder for one second. Yoongi slows down until they fully stop and the older bows his head, not looking at him in the eye. He grabs both of his hands this time, and starts playing with Taehyung’s fingers. 

“I’ve got something to tell you.” the older whispers. “Please just listen to me until the end, ok?”

“Those nightmares you often have, they are not from your imagination. It did actually happened in the past when you were little.” Yoongi admitted.

“G-go on.” Taehyung’s voice comes out shaky.

Yoongi breathes and then looks up, eyes darting between his eyes and his bracelet. He nervously licks his lips before continuing. “On that day, Yubaba knew a human had passed through the gate, and she ordered me to take care of it. I followed your scent and found you alone, tucked in near the entrance. It was very late in the evening and you were crying, and I didn’t know what or how you got in the spirit realm, just that you needed help. I had never seen a human so up close before, but you looked so alone, I couldn’t just leave you there to disappear.”

Flashbacks start to slowly come on his head. Fragments of what he thought all along were nightmares are now dancing around his mind and fitting in like puzzle pieces. His head hurts a bit.

When Yoongi looks back at him, Taehyung can only respond with a little nod.

“I gave you my bracelet so you wouldn’t disappear, and guided you back to the human world. I‘m sorry I couldn’t bring you back with me, Yubaba would have turned you into a pig in the spot. I did my best and left you on a orphanage; I did what I thought it was best for you.” There are tears welling up on the corner of his eyes, and it’s when Taehyung reaches a hand to wipe them off that he feels his own tears running down on his face.

He remembers. He finally does. That day, when his parents and siblings went out to have a picnic. Remembers them leaving him there, alone, not knowing what to do. He was too little at the time to understand what was happening, why did his parents told him to stay there and wait for them to come back while they got in the car and left him, sitting under a tree. It was turning dark and he started to feel scared, so Taehyung got up and tried to find his way back home, and ended up passing through that huge entrance.

Taehyung remembers Yoongi.

“Please forgive me, Tae.” Yoongi sniffles. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for you at the time.”

Taehyung pulls him in for a hug, and he can feel Yoongi freezing in his arms before relaxing again. “You found me, Yoongi, and I’m glad you did. Thank you for not leaving me alone and for not letting me disappear.”

It hurts, remembering he was left behind by his own family; Taehyung must have really suppressed that memory deep inside him for him to forget it. But he is so, so glad Yoongi found him. 

They hug for a couple minutes more until he calms down, and they break the hug. 

“Are you ok?” Yoongi asks him, and Taehyung gives him a light nod with the head. He can feel the older pulling him by the hand, and they are slowly flying again. “I didn’t mean it to hide it from you, I just thought it would be best if you remembered by yourself.”

“I’m fine. A bit taken back, but I’ll manage it.” He says, wiping his tears off his face. “Thank you for telling me.” 

“You know, they say that once you meet someone, you never really forget them.” Yoongi looks at him. “Maybe that’s why you found me again.”

 

They arrive shortly after, just before the sun is out. As Taehyung turns to leave for his room, Yoongi softly grabs his sleeve. “Are you sure we are really ok?”

Taehyung has to fight a urge to not hug him again, so he justs hums in answer. Yoongi nods, leaning in and pressing his lips against his cheek, as he wishes him a good sleep. The place where his lips touched his cheek burn. He then finally heads to his own room and closes the door behind him. His head loudly pounds in his ears as he lies down on the bed.

 

_Once you meet someone, you never really forget them._


	8. Chapter 8

Taehyung wakes up in cold sweat, startled by a thunder. His windows are slamming and he can see the red drops outside in the glass. He gets up and walks closer to the windows to watch the storm. Looking outside, he can see heavy clouds with a dark mauve color to them, turning everything into darkness, more loud thunder and lightnings. Rain red has always got him anxious.

 

_Something’s wrong._

 

As in cue, a loud noise coming from the office. Yoongi isn’t there; he had left in the middle of the day yesterday and hasn’t come back yet, so when the noise gets louder, he knows it’s not something good. Taehyung quickly runs to the door, twisting the door knob so hard it almost comes out in his hand. Turning on the first left, he arrives at the office.

 

The glass door is wide open, curtains flying on the inside and the red rain is wetting the floor. It’s almost too dark for Taehyung to see, but he can make the outline of a huge- something, in the middle of the carpet, and it seems to be… breathing?

 

A lightning strikes in and the room lights up, making it bright enough for Taehyung to see a creature. He takes no time crossing the room to turn the lights on, struggling against the wind to close the window.

 

In the middle of the carpet, lies a red dragon, shaded with beautiful shiny black scales on his body that makes him reach want to out and touch them. He feels mesmerized by the sight, never had seen one so up close before. Sure, there were some dragon guests on the bathhouse and had to clean their tubs before, but Taehyung never got this close to one. Crouching down to take a better look at it, he notices it’s rapid breathing, as well as blood mixing with his scales. The dragon coughs and spills more blood over the carpet, and he starts to panic because he doesn’t know what to do. The storm runs heavily outside, sky still pitch black.

 

After inspecting his wounds (some deep cuts, as well as tiny paper cuts alongside its neck), he looks around the room, trying to remember in which cabinet Yoongi uses to store his medical herbs. He picks out the stronger ones, normally used for infections and small cuts. He knows that the dragon’s injuries are probably way much serious than a simple small cut, but those are all that he has. Taehyung doesn’t even try to use his healing magic, knowing that most likely won’t be of much help in this huge creature.

 

He unscrews the lid of the healing balm Yoongi made once and dips his fingers on it. Taking a generous amount, his trembling fingers linger over the dragon’s cut, hesitating before applying it. He doesn’t know how the dragon will react, maybe he could lose his finger for just trying to approach it.

 

Taking a deep breath, he slowly reaches the cut and closes his eyes as he applies it with care. He hears the dragon’s breathing hitching for a second and a thunder strikes outside, but nothing else happens. Taehyung cracks and eye to see if he still has all of his fingers on his hand, but everything seems to be fine. The dragon looks more calm, even.

 

He proceeds with his job and realises the cuts are more deeper than he thought. Pressing carefully down with his fingers, he spreads the balm. “Fuck.” he mumbles, the dragon not in risk of death, but very, very hurt. Taehyung doesn’t know in what this dragon got itself into to, but he knows it wasn’t something pretty. He bandages it in the best way he can, trying not to move around too much.

 

By the time he finishes, the storm has calmed down, turned into the same red rain Taehyung is used to seeing. While waiting for some improvement, he gets up and searches for a clean cloth and bucket to wipe out the floor. He also finds some loose, shiny scales splattered onto the wooden floor, and Taehyung picks them up, gently putting them together on his pocket.

 

And then, just like magic, the dragon’s body starts to disappear and turns into a human body. Not just any human, but one very familiar; lying on his stomach, is no other than Min Yoongi. Like cold water has been splash on him, Taehyung freezes in his place, only capable of blinking several times, in shock.

 

But then, its clicks. The dragon had just turned into Yoongi.

 

His Yoongi.

 

And he’s deeply wounded, he notices again as he snaps out of it and drops the bucket he was holding on the floor, not caring about having to clean everything again later.

 

“Oh no.” his voice falters, as he drops to his knees on the floor near Yoongi, carefully turns him over on his arms, so he’s laying on his back now. His head hangs to the side and he’s shivering. “Hey, Yoongi? Can you hear me?” he whispers, but doesn’t get any response, not even a twitch in the eyes. “Don’t worry, I’m going to take care of you.” he brushes his hair out of his face and notices the little paper cuts on his cheeks. His eyes follow the older’s body until they find the deep cut from earlier resting on his leg.

 

Taehyung squeezes Yoongi’s kimono in his hands, and lays him back down on the floor. He lights up a herbal incense and sits with his legs crossed near him. He rubs his hands together and hovers them over the wound, Taehyung closes his eyes to concentrate.

 

Energy flowing through his body feels like a cold gel travelling on his insides. And even though it’s not physically there, he knows it has pretty, light green tone to it. The energy reaches his wrist, then his palm and finally his fingers, where it overflows to Yoongi.

 

When he opens his eyes, Yoongi looks calm. Seems like his healing spell worked and helped him to stop shivering. Taehyung checks if he’s feverish, but he has none.

 

He runs his hands through his hair, trying to absorb the whole situation in. The red rain had turned to a calm drizzle outside, and Taehyung couldn't help but to compare it to Yoongi’s state, peacefully resting on the floor. He re-bandages his leg and lays him down again.

 

Deciding that it’s for the best if Yoongi stays where he is, Taehyung gets up and searches in his room for pillows and a blanket to make him more comfortable.

 

Truth to be told, Taehyung wasn't that shocked that Yoongi is a dragon. Surprised, yes, but not shocked. Many magical creatures worked and lived in the bathhouse, and a dragon wouldn’t be an exception.

 

He is more worried on why Yoongi is hurt and who was the one behind it. Taehyung could feel that lately, Yoongi was getting more stressed and nervous from his “meetings”.

 

As the night passed, and not once Taehyung left his side, patiently waiting for the older to wake up. It’s almost morning, he is resting his weight on his left hand and reading a healing book with the other when Yoongi finally stirs beside him. He puts his book down, while the older slowly gets up, flinching a bit when he moves. Taehyung reaches his hand and brushes the hair out of Yoongi’s forehead, checking his temperature, and then slides his hand to cup his cheek, gently caressing it. Still with his eyes closed, Yoongi leans in to his touch and smiles.

 

“Hey.” Taehyung whispers.

 

Yoongi opens his eyes for the first time and stares at him before saying. “Hey.”

 

Taehyung bites his lower lip and pulls in Yoongi for a gentle hug, not too tight so it doesn’t hurt him. “W-what happened, Yoonie?” He holds in a sob. “Why are you so hurt?”

 

“I’m sorry, Tae.” Yoongi holds him closer, shaking. “Things got out of my control, I ended up getting hurt.”

 

“But why? Why do you keep going out without telling me where you are off too?” He breaks the hug and holds his shoulders, searching for the answers in his face. He knows his voice is getting louder, but he can’t help it; can’t hold the questions and worries in any longer. “Everytime, every damn time you go out and don’t tell me what is up with you I get more and more worried! I tried to not ask any questions since you would always brush it off but I knew something was up. And now this?” Taehyung blurts out.

 

“Please, please tell me what is going on so I can help you, Yoongi.” He begs. “I can’t take this anymore, I don’t want to see you getting hurt again.”

 

Yoongi raises his eyebrows and widens his eyes. “I-I’m sorry, Tae. I will tell you everything, ok?” He wipes out the tears on Taehyung’s face.

 

“After Yubaba died, old enemies she had reached out to me and offered a lot of money in exchange for the bathhouse, in exchange for my freedom. I would have to hand in everything; the bathhouse, the clients and the worker’s contracts. And I just simply- simply couldn’t leave all of it, all of them behind like that. I couldn’t leave _you_ like that.” Yoongi grabs Taehyung’s hand and bring to his own face again. “They didn’t like my answer. I had to quickly form alliances, so I went after Seokjin for help, which he obviously agreed to. After forming teams with him, I got chased for a while for her enemies, I fell into some ambushes but I would always find my way out before things got complicated. It was after I travelled north to talk to a powerful rich man, Namjoon, asking for his help- which he accepted, that things got more serious. Seokjin’s spies were informed that an army was coming from the east, so we went to check it out. Another ambush, turns out.” Yoongi’s voice lowers. “This one wasn’t quite easy to run away from, as you can see.” He smiles apologetic.

 

Taehyung’s crying has settle down as also his breathing. For a moment, all he can hear is the drizzle outside, gentyl hitting the windows. He doesn’t stop looking at Yoongi, trying to come to terms with all of this.

 

“Are you still in danger?” And when Yoongi doesn't answer, Taehyung takes the silence as an yes.

 

“I can’t let you, I won’t stay here and do nothing while you are putting yourself out there to protect us like that.” He shakes his head. “We are a team, you and I. I’m not leaving you.”

 

Yoongi nods and fondly smiles, pulling him back into a hug. “Thank you, for staying by my side.”

 

“Yoongi?” Taehyung hears him humming in their hug. “You are a dragon.”

 

Yoongi chuckles and lets go once more, to look at him. “That’s right, I am. Surprised?”

 

“Not really,” He continues. “I’m just curious about what type of dragon you are. I picked your red and black scales from the floor and noticed I have never seen that type before.”

 

“That’s because I’m the only one of my kind. I’m Sui Riu.” Yoongi says, and he sees the older hesitating and biting his lips before continuing. “A rain dragon. When I’m in pain and hurt, rain turns red, colored by my blood- oh no Tae, please don’t cry.” He pats his hair.

 

“You mean that every time it rained red was because you got hurt?” And every time, he remembers that somehow that his heart would ache watching it fall. Now he knows why.

 

“Hey, hey it’s ok. I promise to be more careful from now on. Namjoon is all set if something worse happens.” Taehyung nods, not being able to say anything else, too overwhelmed with the situation.

 

“I hope this doesn't change anything between us?”

 

He cleans the snot on his not and shakes his head faster than he ever has. Blushing, Taehyung blurts out. “O-of course not, silly.”

 

They stare at each other for a moment before Taehyung notices Yoongi’s eyes flickering down to his mouth.

 

“Can I kiss you?” Yoongi whispers so low that Taehyung wonders for a moment if it was his own head playing tricks to him.

 

He slowly nods bites his lips unconsciously, and when Yoongi gets closer, he closes his eyes. He can feel the flutter of Yoongi’s breath on his lips, and his own breathing hitches. The touch is gentle, barely there, but Taehyung can most definitely feel it. It’s a shy, innocent kiss placed on the corner of his lips. Yoongi’s lips are soft, and when he pulls back, Taehyung quickly leans forward, catching the older’s lips again. It’s a little bit awkward in the begging, and Taehyung might have leaned in way too fast and hard, but it’s ok, it’s perfect. He feels Yoongi smiling against his lips before cupping his face with both of his hands. They kiss just like that, a little bit clumsy, not really knowing what to do, but Taehyung feels happy.

 

So, so happy.  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i can't believe but-  
> i think we are reaching the end very soon?


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last chapter uwu

Things… change after that day. Yoongi doesn’t go out on meetings anymore, which is a relief for Taehyung. If the older has a problem to sort out, either Seokjin or Namjoon will come over, have a tea and discuss about it. 

 

Things also change between them. Taehyung was scared that after the kiss Yoongi would turn different or avoid him, but it was quite the opposite. Yoongi got more caring, even clingier. Everytime he had the chance, Yoongi would reach out for his hand and intertwine their fingers, or when they were having dinner, he would always sit beside Taehyung and rest his head on his shoulder. 

 

In the beginning, Jimin and Jungkook teased him a lot about it, until Yoongi noticed it and playfully reminded them that Taehyung  _ is _ dating their boss, and that maybe it was wise of them to cut it out. Even though Taehyung knew they were just kidding, he felt grateful for Yoongi stepping in.

 

The best thing was that the last couple of weeks have been...quiet, peaceful even. Every night, the two of them would go around the bathhouse to check if everything is in order, and things seemed to be fine. They continued the spell casting practices and Taehyung, for some reason, felt that his magic has become much more present and stronger than before, and he could tell how proud Yoongi was for his improvement.

  
  


"But if Hoseok hyung is one of your dearest friends, why didn't you offered him a better job to work at the bathhouse other than that hot boiler room?" Taehyung asks, while they walk through the flower corridor of the garden.

 

"Hey!" Yoongi says, struggling to jump over a branch on the floor, and Taehyung stops walking to wait for him. "I did offered him one at the time, but he said that after all these years working there he kind of got used to it. He even told me he prefers melting down there than having to assist any snappy and rude VIP customers." Taehyung hums.

 

They reach the lower part of the garden, the very same spot they sit that day when Yoongi told him his name. It's in the afternoon, the sun almost setting on the horizon. He had woken up really early because it was too hot and couldn't go back to sleep, so decided to take a walk in the garden and refresh like the old times. Even though Taehyung tried to be sneaky and not bother Yoongi’s sleep, the older was already on his feet and getting ready to accompany him.

 

They sit side by side, crossing their legs on the soft grass, and as the night approaches Taehyung feels the air finally getting colder. 

 

Having Yoongi by his side already leaves him at ease.

  
  
  
  


Everything is peaceful, until they hear a window crashing from the bathhouse. Taehyung frowns and turns to Yoongi, only to be met with a very worried expression in the older’s face.

 

“What was that?” he whispers.

 

Slowly, Yoongi tears his eyes out of the bathhouse to look at him. “I don’t know, but I don’t have a good feeling about this.” 

 

Taehyung squeezes his hand and nods to tell him that he’s coming with him. When Yoongi nods back, both immediately get up and head towards the exit, keeping a fast walking pace. 

From the other side of the bridge, he can already see movement on the entrance. Managers and workers running from one side to another, loud voices mixed with distant screams. Walking turns into running towards the door, and when they get to it, he pushes the curtains aside and finally gets in.

 

It’s chaos. Chairs on the ground, more yelling and ordering on the upper floors. Yoongi and Taehyung stay frozen in place, looking around and trying to understand what’s happening. Yoongi grabs a manager’s arm, yanking him backwards before he passes in front of them. “What’s going on?”

 

The manager looks furious before recognizing his boss, sighing in relief to see him. “Master Yoongi, where have you been?! Some spirits broke in and are trying to take over the bathhouse!”

 

Yoongi releases the manager’s arm, that for a second stays in his place, waiting for Yoongi’s reaction. When he gets none and a scream strikes upstairs, he immediately runs off to somewhere. Taehyung hears loud thumps upstairs, vases broking, doors being opened.

 

“I check the ground floor, you take the second one.” Taehyung untangles their hands and lightly pushes him to the stairs. “Please, be extra careful, we don’t know what we are dealing with here.”

 

Yoongi gives a light nod with his head and quickly kisses him before sprinting to the upper floor.

 

As soon as Yoongi goes, he rolls up his sleeves and run his hands through his hair, pushing it back and cleaning the sweat from his forehead with his folded sleeves. He realises that his hands are shaking, so he grabs the hem of his shirt and closes his fists harder as he can. Get it together, Tae.

 

“Take all the hurt workers to the down part of the building,” he orders a manager. To the other manager that stays back, he whispers. “Fill me in on the situation.” 

 

He leans on the wall and takes a peek at one of the corridors to check if the path is clean. 

 

“Everyone was asleep when they barged in. I think one of the VIP customers were the first one to notice what was happening and called the managers of the floor,” he whispers back to him. Taehyung nods, not taking his eyes of the corridor.

 

They tiptoe onto the next wall, closer to where the noise is coming from. Before he can turn, he sees a dark blue figure running in his direction, holding a large wooden stick with it’s both hands. Taehyung’s body moves without him ordering to, and when he realises, he had just performed a perfect distraction spell on the attacker. Taehyung wides his eyes to the manager beside him, a little happy of what he just did, and the manager holds him a thumbs up before they continue to the main corridor. 

 

Some wall divisors are down; Jimin’s booth is on the floor and some bath tokens are scattered on the floor. Right away, he can see one of his workers sitting down, hands on his leg and leaning on one of the remaining wall divisors of the bathtubs. Taehyung squats down and holds a finger to his lips, asking him to be quiet while he heals his injury. Taehyung then asks the manager to help the worker get up and take him out of there. 

 

At the end of the corridor, he sees Jungkook fighting with another of the dark blue figures. He deflects a punch and hits it back, but Taehyung can see that his friend is already getting tired.

 

“When you get there, tell Hoseok to send all the hot water to the bathtubs.” The manager looks confused at him but doesn’t question his order. Taehyung makes sure that they are both gone before he joins his friend, picking one of the unused wooden sticks of the floor in his hands and running.

 

Jungkook almosts punches when he gets close, him but Taehyung manages to dodge it. His harsh eyes soften when he recognizes his friend. “What are you doing here? It’s dangerous, get back!” His friend seems exasperated, holding both of Taehyung's wrists. 

 

He shakes his head. “I asked Hoseok to bring all the hot water to here, the steam should help us hide and take them down. Also, do you know where Jimin is? Upstairs?” Taehyung whispers.

 

“He’s safe, don’t worry. I told him to go help take the injured ones downstairs. But I’m still worried about you being here, shouldn’t you leave as well? I can take these guys.” Jungkook’s voice comes out as strong, but his body language tells Taehyung otherwise.

 

“I’m not leaving, you are hurt and soon you won’t be able to fight back.” 

 

Jungkook opens his mouth to protest but is interrupted by the sound of water, starting to come out from the pipe and filling the bathtubs, the air getting hotter. Taehyung feels sweat start dripping from his chin; the steam takes over his vision and the only thing he can see is a dark blur on the beginning of the corridor, running right at them. Taehyung tightens his hands around the stick, waiting for it to get closer. When it does, he swoops the stick with his maximum force and hits the figure, making a choked sound before falling on the ground, followed by Jungkook jumping on top of it and giving a one hard punch, knocking the thing out.

 

“Yeah ok, you can definitely stay.” Jungkook gets off from the floor and smiles at him. 

 

“Before the steam dies out, let’s throw them onto the bathtubs so they can be suck by the drain and expelled in the sea.” Taehyung suggests.

 

By now, the floor is flooded with water spilling from the already filled tubs. They try to quietly drag the figures one by one to it, occasionally stopping once because of the rain that strikes out on the outside and another because they hear loud noises from upstairs. Fuck, Yoongi by himself and must be hurt. Taehyung wants to finish this soon so he can go upstairs and help him.

 

When they clear the area, he tries his best to heal some of Jungkook cuts on his arms and legs, but just so enough so he can flee from there. “Find Jimin, he will take care of you.” Taehyung cups his face with his hand, in a attempt to comfort him before helping him up and heading to the second floor.

 

By the time he climbs up the stairs, the second floor is awfully quiet, leaving him with an unsettling feeling on his chest. He hears a door closing to his left, so he hides behind one of the walls and holds his breath, closing his eyes.

 

When he feels something grabbing his right arm, he lets out a wheeze and closes his fist, ready to punch whatever it might be. The something turns out to be Yoongi, raising his hand to cover Taehyung’s mouth, trying to muffle out any more sounds. The older shushes him, retracting his hand while taking quick glances between the corridor and back to him.

 

“Are you ok? Did you get hurt anywhere?” Yoongi whispers, still watching the room.

 

Taehyung shakes his head and notices that Yoongi’s arm has an ugly cut, dripping blood on the floor. He doesn’t seem bothered by it, too distracted to even notice it. Taehyung twists his bracelet on his wrist and takes his hand, trying to heal it in the best way he can. Outside, he hears the rain calming down.

 

“Thank you.” Yoongi’s fingers caress his hand. "Did you run into anything downstairs?"

 

"Yeah, some weird dark blue figures with wooden sticks. I threw them into the bathtub so we don't have to worry about them anymore. You?"

 

Yoongi chews his bottom lip. "There's a similar spirit here to the ones you just described. Just, hm,” He pauses. “Bigger and it's swallowing people." A shiver runs down Taehyung's whole body. That spirit must be the one that was making those loud thumps he heard before. "I've managed slowed it down, but I think I might have to use stronger magic to defeat it. I just need something to distract him."

 

"Can't you just turn into a dragon and kick his ass?"

The older giggles. "I can get very clumsy in my dragon's form and I don't want to tear this place down"

 

"Then how are we supposed to get this thing out from here? How many workers has it eaten already?!" He tries to keep his voice down. Sighing, he gives an idea."I can be the bait. I can wiggle my arms around or something, run towards here and then you come in and take it down."

 

Yoongi is already shaking his head to say no when they hear another loud thump getting closer. "We don't have time, trust me on this." Taehyung looks right into his eyes, sees Yoongi hesitating but he accepts his suggestion in the end.

 

"Don't do anything stupid, you hear me? The thing comes after you, you start running as fast as you can and don’t stop.  _ Don't _ look back."

 

Taehyung nods and starts stretching his body to prepare himself before getting out of the room. He gets out of the room and before turning onto the left, he looks back to look at Yoongi, who gives him a firm nod.

 

He tiptoes around the rooms until he reaches the one where the noise is coming from. The thin paper divisors shake and threaten to fall apart. Taking in a deep breath, his shaky hands reach to open the door and like a band-aid, Taehyung slides the door open with a loud snap.

 

He's met with a enormous brown spirit that is frozen in it's place, startled by the loud noise. The creature slowly turns what Taehyung thinks is it's head to him and just- just stays there and Taehyung's breathing comes to a stop, too scared to move.

 

It happens fast. The first movement that the creature does towards him, Taehyung snaps out and his body moves by itself; getting out of the room at full speed. The spirit follows him, breaking everything around it, crashing into vases and shedding the thin paper walls. Panic fills his veins and he almost gets caught when he trips on the floor, turning right on the corridor. He feels something weird on his feet and he guesses he must have stepped into something, but doesn’t pay much attention to it.

 

Taehyung follows Yoongi's advice.  _ Don't look back. _

 

He finally reaches the corridor and sees Yoongi at the end of it, waiting. Taehyung sighs in relief and runs even faster, because somehow seeing Yoongi gave him some extra strength. The older gets ready in position and Taehyung quickly hides behind him. He sees some sort of magic ball growing between Yoongi's hand, holding so much power that Taehyung can feel a light breeze on his face.

 

The spirit finally reaches them. Before even turning on the corner of the corridor, Yoongi throws the power ball onto the creature, engulfing it in one go. The older squeezes an imaginary ball with his hands, making the power ball start to shrink and the spirit screams, fighting against it. Yoongi looks like he's struggling a lot to hold it in, but he takes another step forward and re-does the movement again.

 

The power ball shrinks into nothing and the spirit disappears. Yoongi's knees give out, but Taehyung catches him in his arms before he falls. 

 

He plays with his hair for a while, waiting for Yoongi to gain his forces back. “Was that all?”

 

“Yeah, I think so.” Yoongi smiles.  
  
  
  


 

\---------------------------

  
  
  


After Yoongi recovers, they get up from the floor and head to the down part to say that everything is fine now. “But what happened, why were they here in the first place?” Taehyung asks him.

 

“I talked with Namjoon and Seokjin a while ago, apparently they also suffered from attacks,” Yoongi sighs. “Although Namjoon says he thinks the bad spirits must have switched and went to the wrong establishment, because a big bad spirit was commanding the intruders. They tried to attack us at the same time so neither could help each other. We were lucky they were dumb enough to switch the places to attack.”

 

When they reach the down part, Taehyung searches for Jimin or Jungkook in the middle of the crowd, practically throwing himself in the sea of workers when he sees them. Jungkook has his head layed down on Jimin’s lap and Jimin looks like he has been crying.

 

“Hey, are you guys ok?” Taehyung says, putting a hand on Jimin’s back and crouching beside them. He takes a thrown gauze of the floor and wraps it around his injured foot, the sharp thing he had felt was a barb from a broken chair that he stepped on while running from the spirit.

 

“I’m fine but,” Jimin’s voice trembles. “Jungkook got hurt.”

 

Jungkook’s hand that was resting on his stomach moves off it and catches Jimin’s, squeezing it. “They said I’ll be fine, you big baby.” He smiles at Jimin. “Just a cut on my leg, they already bandaged it and told me to rest.” He explains.

 

Jimin wipes his tears off and mumbles. “I didn’t signed up for this shit as a manager.” And both Taehyung and Jungkook laugh about it.

 

“I’m glad you two are okay, though.”

 

“Yeah, me too.” Jimin answers.

 

Yoongi calls him from the other side of the room. Taehyung excuses himself and comes to meet the older. “I think we should go around and check on our losses. See how many clients and workers have been injured; how many furniture will we have to replace.”

 

“Yeah that’s probably a good idea. Maybe we should also check up on Seokjin and Namjoon to see if they need any help.”

 

The bathhouse is a mess, furniture spread and broken on the floor, broken windows and the ground floor is flooded with water, but is nothing the bathhouse can’t handle. Nothing  _ they  _ can’t handle together. Asking to the ones that are not injured to help around, Taehyung and Yoongi get to work clean the place. Yoongi also sends some of their men to Seokjin and Namjoon’s in order to help out on their establishments. 

 

At the end of the day, he and Yoongi gather everyone on the dining hall and both of them formally apologize to all. Yoongi explains the issue has been taken care of, and that he will be careful in the future to avoid this kind of from happening again. Yoongi also reminds them that if anyone wants to be dismissed, his office is open for everyone.

  
  
  


\----------------------

  
  
  


It’s late in the morning when they finally fall on the bed. For a few weeks now, they have been sharing beds. Sometimes they asleep in Taehyung’s bedroom, sometimes on Yoongi’s. Doesn't matter for them anymore as long as they are together. Taehyung lays down at the end of the bed, while Yoongi takes the other side and leans on the pillows.

 

“How’s Jimin and Jungkook? Did they got hurt?” Taehyung hears him saying above him.

 

“Jimin is fine, he stayed back to take care of the injured. Jungkook helped me take down the smaller spirits and got a cut on his stomach, but the healers said he will be okay.” 

 

The older hums and pauses. 

 

“And… is your foot okay?” his voice trembling.

 

Taehyung looks up to see that Yoongi is almost crying. “I’m sorry I put you in danger I-I didn’t mean it.” he breaks down.

 

Taehyung then drags himself upwards until he’s on the same side as Yoongi, taking his hands. “If…if you wish to go back to the human world I-” he sobs. “I will understand.”

 

He shakes his head, releases one of Yoongi’s hands to cup his face, wiping the tears with his thumb. “Hey, hey shh… It’s okay, please don’t cry. I was just scared, I’m-” He bites his lip. “I’m not going anywhere, not without you. We will always be together.”

 

Yoongi stops crying. “Really? You promise?” he pouts.

 

“I promise.” he nods. 

 

“Thank you, for not leaving me.” He finally smiles again. Yoongi dries his face and hugs him, tucking his head under Taehyung’s chin, and nuzzles his neck. “Taehyung-ah?”

 

He hums, passing his hair through Yoongi’s hair.

 

“I love you.”

 

“I love you too, Yoongi.”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so...the end! this has been a journey, i learned so much with this fic!! thank you for everyone that read it until here, thank you for the kudos and ofc, thank you to the ones that commented on my chapters, those comments were really the ones that kept me going!
> 
> also, i hope you guys noticed at least some writing improvement since the last chapter... that one is so painful i can't even read it lol
> 
> again, thank you so so much for giving this fic a read!
> 
> come and talk to me on twitter! [seozkjin](https://www.twitter.com/seozkjin)

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much to [@sarahgingersnap](https://twitter.com/sarahgingersnap) for editing this, ily hun hun <3
> 
>  
> 
> hit me up at twitter! [@seozkjin](https://www.twitter.com/seozkjin)


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